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  • Trump, Hegseth clashed at Camp David over Iran missile depletion concerns

    Trump, Hegseth clashed at Camp David over Iran missile depletion concerns

    President Donald Trump’s frustration over the Iran war boiled over at Camp David last week, where he demanded answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on why he had apparently been misled on extreme munitions shortages that now threaten to limit military options with Iran, two people familiar with the exchange told The Washington Post.

    The encounter took place on the sidelines of his Cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday where Trump vented at Hegseth that he thought the munitions issue “had been fixed,” according to both people familiar with the conversation, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation.

    The shortages, particularly in long-range guided missiles and air-defense interceptors, have been part of the reason Trump has pulled back from launching additional massive strikes against Iran in recent days, one of the sources said.

    Trump said Monday that he had ordered and subsequently called off “the biggest attack since World War II,” pending claims of new negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz.

    The president asserted overnight that the United States has “massive amounts” of munitions, saying in a post on Truth Social that “large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed.” The “‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down,” he added.

    While the United States has announced new production agreements for some of the most critical munitions, such as Patriot air defense missiles, the munitions themselves can take as long as two years to produce, and there’s no immediate relief in sight for the shortages.

    In the first month of fighting alone, the U.S. fired off more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles and more than 1,000 Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems, The Post previously reported.

    The U.S. also used more than 1,300 of the Army’s tactical ballistic missiles in the initial weeks of fighting, one U.S. official told The Post. The ATACMs stockpile — a short-range missile also in demand by Ukraine — is drained to the extent that there’s basically none left, said one of the people familiar, an assessment also reported earlier this week by Reuters.

    The scarcity of defensive munitions has had an impact beyond the Middle East. Ukraine is running out of air defenses, and there are few options with which to replenish from Western stockpiles, leaving them exposed to Russia’s long-range attacks.

    The lack of interceptor missiles is also altering how the U.S. decides whether to employ munitions against an incoming threat, based on where it’s assessed to be heading and whether or not it’s “a factor,” the U.S. official told The Post, a change in tactics that was first reported by NBC News.

    Back at Camp David, as he was confronted by Trump over the bare weapons stockpile, Hegseth defended himself and blamed his deputy, Stephen Feinberg, for the shortages and for not ensuring Trump was fully apprised of the issue, both people familiar said.

    The exchange underscored Trump’s increasing frustration with his defense secretary, who was one of the biggest early advocates for taking military action against Iran, convincing Trump it would be a quick and relatively easy win, according to multiple officials.

    “This is 100% fake news. Literally never happened. And President Trump has the utmost confidence in Secretary Hegseth,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in response to questions from The Post.

    More than five months after the start of the conflict, and with 18 U.S. service members killed and hundreds injured, Iran and the U.S. remain at a stalemate, with increasing concern from Arab neighbors about the long-term economic effects of the war and the impact of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

    “Secretary Hegseth did not mislead anyone about our munitions posture, and he did not blame Deputy Secretary Feinberg. These claims about depleted stockpiles, internal disagreements, the Secretary’s position on Iran … are equally fictional,” Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said.

    In a July Senate hearing, Hegseth sparred with Democrats over whether he had provided Trump with honest assessments of the Iran war, including the risks an extended campaign would pose for U.S. military inventories.

    During the hearing, Hegseth declined to discuss his advice to the president and repeatedly blamed any shortages on the Biden administration’s handling of the military, not on the operations that have occurred under Trump’s watch.

    Hegseth, Feinberg and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine have asked lawmakers to provide them $67 billion in additional military funding to help cover the costs of the Iran war, with Hegseth telling lawmakers in testimony last month the request filled an “urgent, necessary” need to refill the military’s stockpiles.

    Senate Republicans have yet to agree on a strategy to take up the package.

    The administration’s overall defense budget request for the coming fiscal year is a record $1.5 trillion and includes tens of billions of dollars to build missiles. But the proposal has stalled as Democrats object to the massive increase, leaving the Pentagon without a clear path to replenishing critical weaponry.

    Ever since Signalgate, where Hegseth sent classified information to a chat group that included a reporter just months after being confirmed to the role, rumors have swirled about how long the defense secretary would remain in Trump’s good graces. The president has consistently praised Hegseth, saying he looks straight out of “central casting” and that “he loves war.”

    Since taking office, Trump has launched military operations in seven countries: Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and Venezuela.

    The successful operation to capture former Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro appeared to further secure Hegseth’s position. But the stalemate over the Strait of Hormuz and the massive cost and length of the Iran war has eroded Trump’s confidence in him, one of the people familiar with the Camp David conversation said.

    “Secretary Hegseth isn’t going anywhere, and he’s going to continue to work side by side with Deputy Secretary Feinberg to execute President Trump’s agenda,” Parnell said in response to questions about that exchange and the munitions depletion.

    Stockpile pressures are not a new challenge. Before the war even started, Caine warned Trump that the U.S. did not have the stockpiles necessary to sustain a prolonged conflict.

    But the pace and sheer volume of munitions expended by both sides has rapidly accelerated the depletion of key U.S. offensive and defensive munitions.

    From Feb. 28 to April 7, which marked the first day of the ceasefire, the U.S. struck more than 13,000 targets in Iran. It has also defended against more than 8,500 incoming Iranian munitions or drones.

    The U.S. launched Operation Epic Fury already facing shortfalls in critical munitions.

    In the summer of 2025, it expended more than a quarter of its total inventory of THAAD interceptors during Israel’s 12-Day war and Operation Midnight Hammer, where U.S. forces struck Iran’s nuclear sites. The current conflict “has made those inadequacies even worse,” said Brad Bowman, an Army veteran and senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

    While Hegseth and the Pentagon have announced numerous new industry framework agreements to rebuild the arsenal, defense firms “aren’t going to start bending metal until you have a contract and congressional appropriations,” Bowman said.

    As a result, it could be years before the inventories are rebuilt. “We’re often talking years between spending what we need to spend, getting the contracts signed, and delivery,” he said. “You don’t just flip the switch and suddenly the munition appears in the hands of the warfighter.”

  • ‘Financial malpractice’ alleged at Philly-based painters union

    ‘Financial malpractice’ alleged at Philly-based painters union

    The parent organization of a Philadelphia-based painters union has taken control of the local entity after alleging “widespread financial malpractice” and a “lack of democratic controls.”

    The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades appointed a special trustee to “take charge and control” of District Council 21, ousting business manager Bernie Snyder from his leadership position, according to a July 24 letter obtained by The Inquirer.

    IUPAT DC 21 represents 5,600 painters, drywall finishers, wall coverers, glaziers, and glass workers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The international union has 140,000 members in the U.S. and Canada.

    “Instead of responding to membership’s needs and growing power in the jurisdiction, under the business manager’s leadership, the district council has engaged in financial malpractice, a lack of transparency, and acted without accountability or democratic controls,” the international union’s general president, James A. Williams Jr., wrote in the letter to DC 21 members.

    Williams, a fourth-generation glazier from Philadelphia and a member of DC 21 and Local 252, said the functions of all officers, business representatives, and employees of the District Council would “terminate” and pass to the trustee, Brian Courtien, a special assistant to the general president.

    Snyder, a painter by trade, could not be reached for comment. A person who answered the phone at DC 21 said Snyder was no longer employed there.

    Snyder, 54, of Thornton, Delaware County, was elected business manager/secretary treasurer in August 2024. At the time of his election, the union said he’d belonged to the council for 29 years, starting out with Local 703.

    IUPAT declined to make Williams — who’s also a member of the AFL-CIO’s executive council — available for an interview. In a statement, IUPAT spokesperson Ryan Kekeris said the international organization “conducted a review and found sufficient evidence to place District Council 21 under a special trusteeship.”

    “A fair, democratic, and constitutionally approved hearing will determine what next steps, if any, are appropriate.”

    In the letter, Williams depicted a disengaged leadership team that failed to organize or defend its trade jurisdiction, even as it increased spending. Membership has declined by 1,200 people in the past decade, Williams wrote. The council employs fewer staff than it did in 2023, yet costs have increased, he said.

    The letter said the District Council’s officers and certain “selected staff” received compensation packages inconsistent with the union’s bylaws, adding that these actions were “hidden” from rank-and-file members.

    DC 21 leadership provided an “inappropriate and unsustainable” number of staffers with excessive base compensation, Williams wrote.

    He also cited “ballooning” compensation costs for elected staff that exceeded $300,000, “in direct conflict” with the organization’s bylaws, as well as “insufficient detail in itemized staff expense receipts.”

    In addition to financial mismanagement, the letter took issue with a lack of accountability at the District Council. Rank-and-file members don’t know which staffers are elected and which are appointed, and executive staff failed to hold regular substantive meetings, the letter says.

    Snyder frequently failed to show up to the office, attend collective bargaining sessions, and engage in community and political activities, violating the union’s constitution, according to the letter.

    “Instead of correcting past financial and structural difficulties, District Council 21’s actions, and inactions, have exacerbated them,” the letter says. “Cumulatively, these failures evidence a general lack of attentiveness to members’ welfare and concerns, and a failure to perform bargaining representative duties, which must be addressed.”

  • A police officer in Delaware County shot and killed a person early Thursday morning

    A police officer in Delaware County shot and killed a person early Thursday morning

    A police officer in Delaware County shot and killed a man wielding a knife early Thursday morning, according to Aldan Borough Mayor Michael Ceci.

    Ceci said the shooting by an Aldan Borough police officer happened about 3:30 a.m. near South Clifton and Aldan Avenues. Aldan Borough is a town of about 4,200 people located six miles west of Philadelphia.

    The officer was responding to a 911 call, Ceci said. The officer first deployed a Taser, then shot the man, who was pronounced dead at Lankenau Medical Center.

    The officer was taken to Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital for “evaluation of minor injuries.”

    “Per borough’s use-of-force policy, the officer is being reassigned to administrative duty, pending the completion of an investigation,” Ceci said.

    An Aldan Borough police vehicle is parked outside the police station.Brett Sholtis

    The Delaware County District Attorney’s Office is investigating, Ceci said.

    By late Thursday morning, there were few signs of the deadly encounter in the tree-lined residential neighborhood. News crews gathered at nearby Providence Park, within eyeshot of both the police station and the house where neighbors said the shooting happened.

    Longtime resident Rich Cooper said he was up late working on home renovations when he saw a police car pull up next door.

    Cooper said he heard what he believed to be two gunshots in quick succession. When he stepped outside, he said, he could smell the smoke from the bullets discharging.

    Cooper said he did not hear any argument or shouting prior to the gunfire. “No yelling. They pulled up, and pop, pop.”

    Within minutes, the corner was swarmed with at least 14 police cars, Cooper said.

    Cooper said it was not the first time police had visited the house next to his.

    “I don’t know what they’re doing over there,” Cooper said.

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    TEST GJK

  • Group demands N.J. yank school guidance on transgender students

    Group demands N.J. yank school guidance on transgender students

    A conservative law firm is calling on New Jersey officials to repeal state guidance on parental notification when students question or attempt to change their gender at school.

    The Liberty Justice Center, a Texas-based nonprofit that has waged such battles for free around the country, warned New Jersey Attorney General Jen Davenport in a letter Tuesday that keeping the guidance, known as Policy 5756, in place will lead to “federal investigations or lawsuits for the violation of federal civil rights.”

    The center also sent letters to attorneys general in New York, Illinois, and Washington, where similar policies are in place. The effort comes a week after the Trump administration threatened two school districts in Maryland and Michigan with sanctions, including pulling their federal funding, if they don’t repeal their policies.

    “By withholding information from parents regarding their children, these school districts are violating federal law, not to mention basic morality,” Timothy Snowball, a senior attorney at the center, said in a statement. “Parents have the fundamental right to direct their children’s upbringing, and these attorneys general must comply with federal law or face possible legal action.”

    New Jersey’s policy, which the state Department of Education issued in 2018, prohibits the disclosure of a student’s gender identity without their consent unless “a specific and compelling need” obligates school officials to alert parents, such as health and safety concerns or a bias incident.

    Several school districts and parents have challenged the policy in court, arguing it interferes with parents’ constitutional right to raise their children as they want. The state’s attorneys have countered that students have a constitutional right to privacy, disclosure risks harm to students whose parents aren’t supportive, and the policy is voluntary guidance districts don’t have to follow. Judges so far have let it stand.

    It’s unclear how many of the state’s 600 districts have adopted the state guidance. The group Defending Education, which opposes such policies, estimates 130 districts have done so, but local advocates suspect that’s an undercount, as school boards typically act on state guidance.

    Snowball said the U.S. Supreme Court’s March order in a California case known as Mirabelli v. Bonta should spur states with similar policies to reexamine and revoke them.

    California’s law requires schools to support a child’s social transitioning and bars alerting parents without the child’s consent. After it was challenged, a trial court issued an injunction that blocked enforcement of the law, an appeals court stayed that injunction, and a split Supreme Court vacated the stay and returned the case to circuit court, saying parents claiming religious exemptions likely will prevail.

    The Liberty Justice Center filed a brief supporting parents in the California case.

    “The constitutional questions have now been squarely presented, and the legal issues are no longer theoretical. Your office should reevaluate the state’s current position to ensure that New Jersey’s policies and enforcement actions comply with parents’ federally protected rights before further litigation compels that result,” Snowball wrote to Davenport.

    Spokespeople for Davenport and the New Jersey Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment.

    But Robert Kim, executive director of the Education Law Center, said Davenport and the other attorneys general shouldn’t change course because of the California decision, which was not a final ruling on the case’s merits but instead just a preliminary order issued in response to an emergency application — meaning there were no oral arguments, briefs filed, or extended opinion written.

    “It is a very limited window into this emerging area of law,” Kim said.

    The Liberty Justice Center’s letter-writing campaign adds “fuel to the fire that’s stemming from this pattern of disturbing behavior by the Trump administration, this fixation to aggressively target a small portion of the student population, the transgender community, for disfavored treatment by the federal government,” Kim said.

    Michael Gottesman, founder of the New Jersey Public Education Coalition, also doesn’t think the California decision should sway policymakers here, noting that California’s policy is mandatory while New Jersey’s is voluntary.

    The policy’s critics also ignore that the state’s Law Against Discrimination protects people from being forcibly outed, Gottesman added.

    “The policy basically sets up a process which recognizes the fact that parents have rights, but students do too,” Gottesman said. “There’s a whole line of cases in the Supreme Court on parents’ rights, but there’s also a whole line of cases in the Supreme Court about students’ privacy rights.”

    Opponents have mischaracterized the policy, which balances parental notification with student privacy, said Dillon Reisman, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

    “Our state’s policies have never required schools to lie to parents when a parent asks about their student’s gender identity. The policy already recognizes that health and safety concerns or harassment, intimidation, and bullying laws might require schools to affirmatively notify parents of a student’s gender identity if it’s relevant,” Reisman said. “Those are two things that already meet the U.S. Supreme Court standard from Mirabelli v. Bonta.”

    This story originally appeared on New Jersey Monitor.

  • In the American prairie, a stealth plan to end the GOP Senate majority

    In the American prairie, a stealth plan to end the GOP Senate majority

    South Dakota is a prairie state that voted more than 63% for Donald Trump in 2024, so it’s not the first place you’d look to find a wave of discontent over GOP rule. But deep under the state’s expansive corn and soybean fields grow the invasive roots of political rage.

    There’s the trade war that’s dried up demand for farmers’ crops while driving up the costs of essential items like fertilizer. Disdain for Trump has slashed the flow of Canadian tourists who once flocked to Mount Rushmore. There’s the same high gas and supermarket prices as in the other 49 states. And farmers who had liked the president’s border policies are now scared of losing workers to immigration raids.

    Doug Sombke, president of the South Dakota Farmers Union, recently told the Canadian magazine Maclean’s that some Dakotans now “see we got sold a bill of goods … They were told grocery prices were going to come down. Trump keeps leading them on, saying, ‘There’s gonna be some pain.’ I don’t think anybody was ready for this much pain, this soon.”

    In this brutal climate, one South Dakotan who probably should be bracing for pain is the mostly pro-Trump GOP Sen. Mike Rounds, a former governor seeking reelection to the Senate in November. And on Tuesday, Democrats hoping to oust Rounds from Capitol Hill got the big news that a lot of them were hoping for.

    The only Democratic candidate dropped out of the race.

    Huh?

    That’s right. In what may be the most counterintuitive political strategy in U.S. political history, liberal anti-Trump activists in politically red states west of the Mississippi have been pleading for obscure, long-shot Democratic candidates to abandon their races — so that spunky independent candidates can challenge the GOP one-on-one instead.

    When ex-state trooper and longtime Democratic activist Julian Beaudion told South Dakotans that, feeling pressure, he’s quitting the race, it cleared the path for independent Brian Bengs to consolidate the anti-incumbent vote in November. Polls suggest that the retired U.S. Air Force lawyer and college professor who was briefly a Democrat is already within striking distance of an upset.

    And he’s not alone. Democrats are also not running a Senate candidate in Nebraska — where a well-funded and well-known independent, labor leader Dan Osborn, is running again — or in Idaho, where Todd Achilles, a one-time Democratic lawmaker who left the party, is on the ballot. In Montana, an independent Senate hopeful is also hoping that a Democrat will drop out, but unsuccessfully so far.

    Casual political observers probably know that Democrats (and two allied independents) — currently in the Senate minority by a 47-53 count — are hoping Trump’s unpopularity will help their candidates run the table in five to six key contested states from Maine to Texas. But much less attention has been paid to this stealth backup plan — the notion that a few prairie populists can end the GOP majority.

    What’s truly remarkable about this scheme is that a growing number of Democratic strategists are making a tacit, not to mention uncomfortable, acknowledgment: In the American heartland, their party’s brand is in the toilet.

    That’s why a number of political activists believe the only way in these blood-red states to make the most out of rising voter anger against Republicans over high gas prices and Trump’s badly botched war with Iran is to offer voters an alternative without a “D” next to their name.

    Steve Hildebrand, a Sioux Falls-based political consultant who was a high-ranking official in Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, is one of the Democrats who thinks that — despite voter unrest against the GOP — an independent has the best chance in South Dakota.

    “I think our party has gravitated too far away from fighting for hard-working Americans — you know, blue-collar workers, union workers,” Hildebrand told me this week. “You know, we’ve been fairly pathetic about a unified party message, and frankly, we’ve been pathetic about beating back on Donald Trump.”

    Still, most of the political agenda of the western independents is larded with a modern brand of prairie populism that feels like a first cousin to the left-wing progressivism of Democrats — like Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed — who’ve been scoring 2026 victories in blue states. They are strongly against billionaire influence in politics while advocating for healthcare reform and progressive ideas about making life more affordable.

    “Getting money out of politics to the maximum extent possible would be the single biggest accomplishment I think of my career and of Congress,” Bengs told Independent Voter News. “And I’d also like to get healthcare affordable, so people don’t have to worry about, ‘Don’t call the ambulance, because I can’t afford that.’”

    So why not run as a Democrat, when so many of his proposals overlap? Bengs did join the Democratic Party to challenge South Dakota’s other GOP senator, Majority Leader John Thune, in 2022, and after losing by 27 percentage points, he said he’ll never do that again.

    He said at county fairs and parades he met voters who liked his ideas, but told him, “I’ll never vote for a Democrat.” “Sometimes there was an expletive in there. The takeaway was that the letter was more important than what I was saying.”

    “Democrats are simply not competitive in at least 20 states, maybe more.” Larry Sabato, the University of Virginia political scientist and veteran analyst, told me. He said independent races can be a way to win in these red states, but the candidate needs to break with the Democrats on some issues and show themselves as a true outsider.

    Sabato said Republican dominance of prairie and mountain states can end up with “voters getting fed up with the ruling party, and desiring a switch so badly that they’ll hold their nose and defect. I suppose it is easier to vote for an independent.”

    Except that clearing the political field to create the desired one-on-one race between a Republican and such an independent upstart is proving to be not so easy.

    The other Graham Platner crisis for Dems | Will Bunch Newsletter

    Experts like Sabato say the strongest independent Senate candidate might be Montana’s Seth Bodnar, a former University of Montana president and Army veteran. But the Democrat who’s on the ballot in Big Sky Country, Alani Bankhead, told Politico last week that she would abandon the race only “if a lightning bolt from God struck me” — an unlikely event even in this summer of wild weather. Polls suggest the Republican, Kurt Alme, would easily win a three-way race against both Bodnar and Bankhead.

    The process in South Dakota was just as messy. The Democrat, Beaudion, also had been insistent he would not withdraw before Tuesday’s deadline, when he alleged that he and his family faced “intimidating threats to drop out of the race,” and gave no indication he would support Bengs’ campaign.

    The best chance for knocking off a GOP incumbent remains Nebraska. Osborn, who rose to prominence as the union leader of a high-profile strike against the food giant Kellogg’s, got nearly 47% of the vote against Sen. Deb Fischer in 2024 when Trump was on the ballot. In 2026, he’s poised to capitalize on the president’s fading approval as he challenges another incumbent, Sen. Pete Ricketts.

    “If you believe that billionaires, like Elon Musk, George Soros, or Pete Ricketts, should not be allowed to buy anything they want, including private islands for sex trafficking, and our elections, and our votes, then send them a message in cash and vote for me,” Osborn told a recent town hall. The most current poll, conducted in May by Tavern Associates, showed Osborn winning by 5 percentage points.

    Still, it’s an uphill climb for many of these prairie independents. Incumbents like Rounds, Ricketts, and Idaho’s 83-year-old Sen. James Risch enter their races with an unshakeable base of MAGA Trump supporters, and they’ll have millions of dollars for ad campaigns that will surely portray their opponents as liberal Democratic wolves in sheep’s clothing.

    There are also a ton of questions about what will happen if any of them win in November. Would they join the two current independents, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Maine Sen. Angus King, in caucusing with the Democrats? (Osborn has explicitly said he will not.) Whom would they support for majority leader, with a likely challenge to the current top Democrat Chuck Schumer? Would they vote mostly with Democrats, or take contrary, libertarian stands on issues like gun control, in line with voters back home?

    The biggest question for Democrats, however, might be the long-term one: How will yanking so many candidates in 2026 help the professed goal of rebuilding a Democratic Party that some day will be viable in all 50 states? That will have to wait until the political derecho of disgust with both parties blows past.

    “There’s just a lot of different stripes out there right now, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Hildebrand said. “I think the Democratic Party and the Republican Party both have terrible brands. I think you know that it’s their own fault. It’s not the fault of voters.”

  • National Gallery studied whether Freedom 250 IndyCar vibrations will affect art

    National Gallery studied whether Freedom 250 IndyCar vibrations will affect art

    When the Freedom 250 Grand Prix kicks off this month as part of President Donald Trump’s summer celebrations, IndyCar racers will weave at speeds up to 185 mph among federal buildings, the National Gallery of Art, the National Archives, and the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn, Air and Space, and American Indian museums.

    One of those institutions, the National Gallery of Art, has studied vibrations ahead of the race as it prepares for possible effects on its art — but it’s declining to say what it found.

    “In preparation for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, the National Gallery conducted an extensive vibration study and based on the results we have implemented a set of measures to ensure the safety of our staff, visitors, collection, and facilities during the race,” gallery spokesperson Chris Abanavas said in a statement. “While we are not releasing the specifics, I can share that any such measures are only being taken out of a great abundance of caution.”

    The study didn’t raise concerns about structural risk to the buildings, Abanavas added. The race will also limit attendance at the free museum to ticket holders to the event’s secured area.

    The Smithsonian determined the race, which will take place Aug. 22-23, will not threaten any objects in its collections and has taken no special precautions as a result, a Smithsonian official said. But the institution will monitor the situation before and during the race, so it can protect exhibits if that changes.

    While the event is a first for D.C., it is not the first such race to pass through city streets and near museums, which commonly face vibrations from construction, musical events, and large crowds. But some historic preservationists worry the risk to delicate art pieces, historic documents, and priceless murals near the circuit has been underexamined.

    In March, the National Park Service consulted with the D.C. State Historic Preservation Office about the IndyCar event, noting that it saw “no adverse effects.” The letter did not mention the museums along the route. (The National Park Service and the National Archives did not respond to a request for comment.)

    Some preservationists who spoke with the Washington Post called the analysis insufficient and said a more comprehensive review of potential damage to historic properties or artifacts would have taken years, not months.

    “I can’t think of any place in that whole area that goes where the speed limit is higher than 25 miles an hour,” said Michelle Arcari Rose, a former associate general counsel at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has sued to stop Trump’s White House ballroom project. “So whereas people think these grand prix races aren’t a problem, we certainly don’t know, right? It’s a huge risk to then unleash cars at 185 miles per hour in a place where we’ve never had cars really going more than 25 miles an hour.”

    Mary Okin, assistant director of the nonprofit Living New Deal, sent a letter last week to the National Park Service and other agencies expressing concern that the event was permitted “without meaningful” consultation with “known preservation stakeholders.” The letter and the National Gallery of Art’s vibration study were first reported by the New Republic.

    “Such vibrations are well above normal street traffic and even go beyond those of jackhammers, pile drivers, and even freight trains,” she wrote.

    Okin is calling for safeguards including temporary sound barriers and damage assessments to help protect buildings such as the Wilbur J. Cohen Building, which sits on the circuit’s south edge and houses fragile New Deal-era murals.

    “They’re vulnerable,” said Okin, whose organization has worked on the building’s preservation. “Excess vibrations and sound, as well as the construction of the racetrack itself, could very well cause damage.”

    The General Services Administration, the body that manages real estate for the federal government, reviewed the proposed route for potential impacts on its assets and identified no areas of concern, a spokesperson said in a statement.

    “The White House and [IndyCar owner] Penske have followed all appropriate protocols and been in close coordination with all relevant agencies to ensure this is also the safest and most secure race for all visitors to enjoy,” said Davis Ingle, a White House spokesperson.

    While many major motorsport races are held on permanent road courses or oval tracks, temporary street circuits are a familiar part of international racing.

    IndyCar stages several events on public roads in cities such as St. Petersburg, Fla.; Long Beach, Calif.; Detroit; and Toronto, while Formula One also races on street courses in places including Monaco, Singapore, and Las Vegas. The roads are closed, lined with concrete barriers, and transformed into racecourses for the events before reopening to traffic.

    One of the closest comparisons with D.C.’s race is the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, in which the street circuit runs next to the Dalí Museum. A museum spokesperson said the collection has remained safe and secure throughout the event’s history. The museum has not conducted race-specific vibration studies, but its galleries were built to museum standards and the collection is continuously monitored.

    Green Savoree Racing Promotions, which organizes the St. Petersburg race, said the museum closes to visitors while racing is underway and reopens after the event concludes. The promoter also noted that the museum is housed in a hurricane-rated building constructed to Florida standards, allowing the artwork to remain in place during extreme weather, and said it was not aware of any additional precautions being necessary during the race.

    In a statement, a Freedom 250 Grand Prix spokesperson said race organizers have “tremendous respect for the history and the structures surrounding the racing circuit in Washington, D.C.”

    “IndyCar has successfully hosted races on downtown street circuits in urban areas for decades,” the spokesperson said. “With this excellent track record and the thorough preparation we have done for this event working closely with all the appropriate local and federal agencies, we do not anticipate any impact on the structures surrounding the circuit” as a result of the race.

    Researchers have started paying closer attention to how vibrations from construction, live music, and major events may affect the art and artifacts inside museums.

    One 2023 report studied the effects of vibrations from music and a NASCAR street race on museums in Chicago. In that case, racecars passed a south wall of the Art Institute of Chicago, near galleries holding a Van Gogh exhibition.

    Advisers who reviewed data and consulted with NASCAR beforehand told the museum vibrations from the cars shouldn’t pose a major risk, according to the report. Afterward, they found museumgoers’ foot traffic caused greater vibrations in gallery floors than the race outside. (An author of the report declined to be interviewed, and the Art Institute says it works with specialists before any major activity that might cause vibrations.)

    On Tuesday, there were few apparent changes at the National Gallery of Art except for enclosures set up around some artworks outside.

    The I.M. Pei-designed triangular skylights, which abut a cascading sunken fountain and illuminate the underground cafe, have been boarded up. Between the West Building and the Sculpture Garden, a massive Alexander Calder sculpture made of sheet metal, Tom’s, has been enclosed in a protective barrier.

    Some sculptures and installations were boarded up “out of an abundance of caution,” said Abanavas, citing “the increased visitor traffic around the National Mall this summer for events including the Grand Prix.”

    As of publication, the Post did not identify significant changes to public collections inside the National Gallery of Art’s East Building, which closely faces the racetrack on Pennsylvania Avenue.

  • Tupac Shakur was killed in Las Vegas in 1996. Here’s who was there that night

    Tupac Shakur was killed in Las Vegas in 1996. Here’s who was there that night

    LAS VEGAS — New details about one of hip-hop’s most enduring mysteries — the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur — could finally come to light in the upcoming trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis.

    Davis, 63, is accused of orchestrating the drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip that also wounded rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight. Davis’ jury trial will begin Monday, nearly three years after he was arrested in 2023. He pleaded not guilty.

    On the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur was in the passenger seat of a black BMW that Knight was driving when a white Cadillac pulled up on their right side and gunfire erupted. Knight was wounded but survived. Shakur died a week later at the age of 25.

    Police and prosecutors say the shooting stemmed from a fierce competition for dominance in a musical genre that pitted East Coast members of a Bloods gang sect against West Coast members of a Crips sect that Davis has said he led in Compton, Calif.

    That night, three others were with Davis in the Cadillac, but none of them faced charges in Shakur’s killing before they died.

    Here’s what we know about who was in both vehicles from authorities, court records, grand jury testimony, interviews, and Davis’ 2019 tell-all memoir, Compton Street Legend.

    Tupac Shakur

    Shakur is considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. He had five No. 1 albums, was nominated for six Grammy Awards, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. He received a posthumous star in 2023 on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and he will appear in the upcoming video game Stranger than Heaven.

    His death came as his fourth solo album, All Eyez on Me, remained on the charts, with some 5 million copies sold. He also used the stage names 2Pac and Makaveli. As an actor, he starred in several films.

    Shakur was born Lesane Parish Crooks in New York in 1971, and his name was changed a year later. His late mother, Afeni Shakur, and late stepfather Mutulu Shakur were active in the Black Panther Party in New York. Tupac Shakur was not close with his biological father, William “Billy” Garland.

    Two of the rapper’s siblings, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur and Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur, have criticized authorities for inaction and slowness in charging anyone with their brother’s death.

    Marion “Suge” Knight

    Knight founded Death Row Records, a Los Angeles-based music label that represented Shakur at the time of his death. Knight’s moniker was shortened from “Sugar Bear,” his nickname growing up in Compton.

    Knight and Shakur were headed to a nightclub when their car was shot at near the Las Vegas Strip. Knight was grazed by a bullet or shrapnel.

    Now 61, Knight is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for running over and killing a Compton businessperson outside a burger stand in January 2015. The case capped the former rap music mogul’s downfall from his heyday as one of the biggest — and most feared — names in the music industry.

    Davis said he and Knight knew each other growing up and even played on the same youth football team in Compton. Knight went on to play college football at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Briefly, during the 1987 NFL players’ strike, he was a replacement player for the Los Angeles Rams.

    In his memoir, Davis describes Knight and himself as the “only living eyewitnesses to what truly happened.”

    “Like two rams locking horns, Suge and I looked each other dead in the eye,” he writes when describing the moments right before the shooting.

    Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson

    Law enforcement authorities long suspected that Anderson was the gunman. He was 22 at the time. Though Davis was his uncle and 12 years older, he described their relationship as that of brothers, friends, and even father-son.

    Shortly before the drive-by shooting, Anderson was beaten in a brawl at the MGM Grand casino involving Shakur and his associates, including Knight. Authorities, authors, and Davis himself say the shooting was an act of retaliation for beating up Anderson.

    “Them jumping on my nephew gave us the ultimate green light to do something,” Davis writes in the book.

    Davis said he obtained a handgun from an associate and tossed it into the back seat of the Cadillac but did not say who fired the fatal shots. Anderson was sitting in the backseat of the car, behind his uncle.

    Neither the Cadillac nor the gun used in the shooting were recovered, according to retired Las Vegas police Detective Clifford Mogg, who was assigned to the investigation in early 2018.

    “We were never able to identify the person who rented the car, where it was rented from, and then when it comes to the gun, we have never recovered as of this date, the weapon that was used in the murder,” Mogg said in testimony to the grand jury.

    Anderson, who denied involvement in Shakur’s killing, died two years later in what police said was an unrelated shooting at a Compton car wash.

    Deandrae “Freaky” Smith

    Also known as “Big Dre,” Smith was in the back seat of the car that night, sitting next to Anderson.

    Although authorities have said they believe Anderson pulled the trigger, the grand jury testimony challenged that theory.

    Denvonta Lee, a former associate of Davis, told the grand jury that it was Smith who shot Shakur and Knight. He said Anderson tried reaching over Smith but didn’t have a “clear shot” out the left-rear passenger window.

    The former associate, who wasn’t in the car but recounted a conversation he had with Smith days after the shooting, said Smith took the gun from Anderson, opened fire and let Anderson take credit for Shakur’s death.

    Smith was 30 when he died in 2004 of natural causes, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

    Terry “Bubble Up” Brown

    Brown was driving the Cadillac from which the shots were fired.

    Davis said in his memoir that they were driving toward Las Vegas Boulevard that night but spotted Shakur “hanging out of the window” of the BMW and waving to fans. Davis told Brown to make a U-turn, and they drove slowly past the rapper’s convoy until Davis said they “found who we were seeking.”

    Brown died in a 2015 shooting at a medical marijuana dispensary in Compton.

    The Los Angeles County coroner’s office said his full name was Terry Tyrone Brown, although Brown has been referred to as both “Terrence” and “Terrance” in investigative records.

  • Philly Haitians and allies march to demand protections as TPS expires

    Philly Haitians and allies march to demand protections as TPS expires

    Dozens of Haitians, allies, and supporters rallied in Center City on Thursday, demanding that Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators help restore temporary protected status (TPS) for thousands now in danger of being deported to the shattered Caribbean nation.

    They gathered outside the office of Republican U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick near 20th and Market Streets, then marched to the office of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat, near Second and Chestnut Streets.

    People held up signs that said, “Our Haitian community is here to stay,” even as protections and work permits have ended for about 350,000 Haitians in the U.S. The Haitian community numbers about 11,000 in Philadelphia, and leaders say it seems everyone knows someone who had TPS or has it themselves.

    Speakers said that TPS is more than an immigration status, that it is what allows neighbors, friends, and family members to live here, to work, pay taxes, and help build the country.

    They called on the senators to help pass Senate Bill 4814, which would require the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for TPS through April 2029.

    A spokesperson for McCormick said: “We respect everyone’s right to come together and voice their opinion. We appreciate the input.”

    Efforts to reach a spokesperson for Fetterman were not immediately successful.

    Pastor Kenel Stevenson said he knows of no local Haitians who have been taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or fitted with ankle monitors, as the ACLU says is happening elsewhere.

    But the mood among his fellow Haitians is grim, he said.

    “There is fear, fear of repatriation, of being returned to a place where there is no safety,” Stevenson said.

    Nearly 100 people gathered before moving east toward Fetterman’s office shortly before noon, filling the breadth of Chestnut Street as police officers stopped traffic for the group to pass. Oppressive heat and humidity caused some older people to lag.

    Reverend Jennifer Joseph of Zion Community Church in Delaware County addresses the crowd outside of U.S. Senator Dave McCormick’s office in Philadelphia on Thursday.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer

    TPS has expired for an estimated 350,000 Haitians, ending their ability to legally work in this country and putting them at risk of deportation to a homeland riven by natural disaster and violent crime.

    The Rev. Frantz Ulysse, pastor of the First Haitian Church of God of Prophecy in Olney, said fear and uncertainty are not things he expected his parishioners to feel on American soil.

    He searches himself to offer hope at a moment when people are desperate for some sense of tranquility.

    “I had a mother called me the other day and asked if I could take custody of her child if she’s taken away,” Ulysse said.

    Community leaders fear mass family separation, as Haitian nationals have married U.S. citizens and are raising American-born children.

    “We are not criminals,” he said. “We have engineers, doctors, professors,” people who are eager to help and contribute.

    “If people go back to Haiti, they will die, and if they stay as things are, they are in hiding, scared, and can’t leave their house,” he said, joining others outside Fetterman’s office.

    Still, he said, he has not given up hope.

    “America is a country of immigrants, and I believe they will stand with us,” Ulysse said. “Help us fight until the end!”

    Hundreds of Haitian nationals have been told by immigration officials to appear at ICE offices to be fitted with ankle monitors, according to the ACLU.

    Temporary protected status provides permission to live and work in the United States for people whose homelands are riven by war, natural disasters, epidemics, or other extraordinary circumstances.

    Haiti suffered a massive earthquake in 2010 that led the Obama administration to announce that undocumented Haitian immigrants in the U.S. would be eligible for TPS. Thousands more would be welcomed over time under humanitarian programs and become eligible as Haiti grew mired in crisis ― a deadly cholera epidemic, hurricanes, the collapse of basic government functions, and the rise of armed gangs.

    Reverend Katie Aikins, of West Philadelphia, prays for the Haitian people alongside faith leaders and community members before the march begins outside of U.S. Senator Dave McCormick’s office on Thursday.Aidan T. Gallo / Staff Photographer

    Haitian American pastor Ketty Pointe-Jour said Thursday that her immigrant parents would not believe what is happening today.

    They fled Haiti for their lives, she said, and “the U.S. opened its arms for them. The America they knew in the ’60s and ’80s is completely different from what we are seeing now.”

    The Trump administration has sought to end TPS for Haiti and other nations. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the administration could terminate temporary protected status for countries like Haiti and Syria.

    More broadly, the ruling appears to make Department of Homeland Security decisions about TPS unreviewable by lower courts, creating deep uncertainty for the future. The White House has pledged to deport people who lose legal status, including those who had TPS.

    Haitians are not the only population affected.

    TPS is set to lapse for more than 170,000 people from El Salvador in September, and in October 100,000 from Ukraine face the same termination.

    Advocates say the Trump administration’s promise of deportations will hurt families that include spouses and children who are American citizens.

    What is more, immigration researchers and organizations say, the country will pay a financial price ― in lost taxes, wages, spending, and services, as large numbers of workers and dollars exit the U.S. economy.

    The nation’s 1.3 million TPS holders work at higher proportions than the country as a whole, pay billions of dollars each year in federal and local taxes, and contribute to the solvency of a Social Security system from which they are unlikely to ever draw benefits.

    Outside Fetterman’s office, Dottie Baumgarten said she came from her Cheltenham home to support the Haitian community. She hoped the presence of supporters helped immigrants feel less alone.

    “The Haitian challenge is not just Haitians,” she said, “it’s immigrants in general, and we have to support them. We are destroying their families.”

  • Feds will take over gun case of Olney man at center of missing women investigation, as Philly DA withdraws charges

    Feds will take over gun case of Olney man at center of missing women investigation, as Philly DA withdraws charges

    Federal prosecutors will take over the criminal case against the Olney man whose house is at the center of a sprawling investigation into the fate of two missing women, officials said Thursday.

    Assistant District Attorney Alyssa Amoroso withdrew the charges the Philadelphia DA’s office had filed against Eugene Albert Horsch for illegal gun and drug possession Thursday morning, telling a city judge that the U.S. Attorney’s Office would instead handle the case.

    Horsch, 44, has been in federal custody since June after a U.S. park ranger encountered him and another woman inside a black BMW near Independence Hall, acting suspiciously. Police said they searched Horsch — who was not allowed to possess guns because of felony convictions — and found a switchblade and a glass pipe in his pants, as well as two illegal guns, drugs, and a phony federal drug enforcement badge in his car.

    How a pornographer’s violent art complicates Philly’s missing women mystery

    And then, in an unsettling twist, the woman with Horsch presented a fake ID bearing the name of a woman, Blair Tonzelli, who had been reported missing in 2023.

    Horsch was charged with illegal gun and drug possession after his June 19 arrest, and was held on $500,000 bail.

    About a week later, he was charged with a federal firearms violation, allowing him to be held in federal custody until trial.

    Eugene Albert Horsch, 44, of Philadelphia.Courtesy of Philadelphia police

    In the days after Horsch was arrested with the weapons in Center City, local and federal investigators searched his decrepit twin house on Chew Avenue and found another gun, as well as materials to grow marijuana.

    They also discovered a trove of more concerning materials — barrels of chemicals in the basement, several urns holding cremated remains, supplies to make counterfeit IDs, documents tied to at least two women who have been missing for years, and a handwritten letter that described hurting people and mentioned the serial killer Ted Bundy.

    A woman also told investigators Horsch had told her he knew how to use chemicals to melt bodies in the basement.

    As officials investigated the whereabouts of Tonzelli, the woman whose name appeared on the ID handed to park rangers, they learned that she was reportedly last seen at the Chew Avenue house in late 2022.

    They also found that another missing woman was last seen at the address. Amy McHale, the ex-wife of Horsch’s deceased father, Raymond “R.C.” Horsch, disappeared in June 2016.

    In the months since the investigation began, police have repeatedly searched Horsch’s home, excavated its yard to recover pipes to test for DNA, and pored over hundreds of pieces of documents and Horsch’s devices in hopes of learning the fate of the missing women.

    Law enforcement sources said none of the items recovered from inside the home — including what initially appeared to be significant amounts of blood — tested positive for blood or either woman’s DNA. It was not immediately clear if the tests of the excavated pipes have been completed.

    The strange, complex backstory of Eugene Horsch and his father has also clouded portions of the investigation.

    Raymond “R.C.” Horsch in 1999.S. E. Stokowski / Wikimedia

    Raymond Horsch was a porn actor and director who produced films and self-published novels that often featured women in addiction in violent fantasies — including some that depicted various ways to kill women. He cast himself in some of the stories as an “empathetic” serial killer who preyed on addicted women to end their suffering, and billed the books as stories that combined real details from his life story with his fantasies.

    Investigators have since found themselves working to sort fact from fiction in discerning whether anything more sinister happened inside the home, or if it was just a den for troubled drug users.

    Eugene Horsch’s lawyer, Jerome Brown, has said his client did nothing wrong. Brown did not attend Thursday’s hearing.

    Horsch, too, did not appear in court. He remains in federal custody as Philadelphia homicide detectives and federal officials continue to investigate.