Steve Mistler

🔊 Listen Now: Oyster farmer and veteran Graham Platner hopes his message lands with Maine voters All Things Considered on NPR One | 4:35

ICYMI: Oyster farmer and veteran Graham Platner hopes his message lands with Maine voters via @npr.org 📻 🎧
one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5565...

The Trump appointee accusing the president’s political foes of mortgage fraud skipped over his agency’s inspector general when making criminal referrals,, bypassing rules meant to ensure that federal officials don’t abuse their power for partisan purposes.

www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

Former Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap launches primary challenge against Jared Golden Dunlap's campaign launch is trying to tap Democrats' frustration with Golden's approach to President Donald Trump.

Seeking to tap Democrats' anger over Trump, former Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap launches primary challenge against Rep. Jared Golden.

buff.ly/giO4Tmb

Former Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap launches primary challenge against Jared Golden Dunlap's campaign launch is trying to tap Democrats' frustration with Golden's approach to President Donald Trump.

Dunlap's campaign launch is trying to tap Democrats' frustration with Golden's approach to President Donald Trump:

How it looked in print ...

And there’s the issue of masks. This Court has listened carefully to the reasons given by Öztürk’s captors for masking-up and has heard the same reasons advanced by the defendant Todd Lyons, Acting Director of ICE. It rejects this testimony as disingenuous, squalid and dishonorable. ICE goes masked for a single reason -- to terrorize Americans into quiescence. Small wonder ICE often seems to need our respected military to guard them as they go about implementing our immigration laws. It should be noted that our troops do not ordinarily wear masks. Can you imagine a masked marine? It is a matter of honor -- and honor still matters. To us, masks are associated with cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan. In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police. Carrying on in this fashion, ICE brings indelible obloquy to this administration and everyone who works in it. “We can not escape history,” Lincoln righty said. “[It] will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.”

Today's court ruling has thoughts on masked ICE agents:

"This Court has listened carefully to the reasons given by Öztürk’s captors for masking-up... It rejects this testimony as disingenuous, squalid and dishonorable. ICE goes masked for a single reason -- to terrorize Americans into quiescence."

DNC chair says special elections show Democrats are winning, even when they lose DNC Chair Ken Martin says recent special election results show Democrats are on the right track for 2026, and tells detractors to "stop bitching" and help the party's efforts.

NEW: DNC Chair Ken Martin tells me @npr.org special election results show Democrats are on the right track for 2026, and tells detractors to "stop bitching" and help the party's efforts.

More on Martin's view that Democrats are winning -- even when they lose.

Billions in Taxpayer Dollars Have Become Virtually Untraceable The Trump administration’s aggressive approach to overhauling the executive branch has obscured how federal dollars are actually being spent — even for the members of Congress.

This is what I’ve been reporting on for months. Agencies are taking money and repurposing it against Congressional instructions, and there’s no way to know what they are taking the money from or what they are using it for.

Graham Platner draws hundreds to town hall kick off as Senate bid builds Graham Platner is one of eight declared Democrats seeking to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, but his campaign has drawn outsize interest for a political newcomer. He's attacking Collins and...

Graham Platner is attacking Collins and leaders in the national Democratic Party, who he describes as proxies for a political system abandoning the working class and enriching corporations and wealthy interests:

A note about the crowd: campaign says there were 850 there. I couldn’t count from where I was. But the place couldn’t fit anymore people. There people listening from the parking lot and in the street behind this stage

Graham Platner at a town hall in Ellsworth. A hometown crowd of sorts, but they’ve packed this small brewery.

Brendan Carr Isn't Going to Stop Until Someone Makes Him Experts say the FCC commissioner's conduct—testing how far the agency can go to limit speech without ever quite formally censoring it—is flatly unconstitutional. That won't make it stop.

Experts say the FCC commissioner's conduct—testing how far the agency can go to limit speech without ever quite formally censoring it—is flatly unconstitutional. That won't make it stop. www.wired.com/story/brenda...

Maine joins states-led public health collaborative amid upheaval at U.S. CDC The group was formed as a response to upheaval at the U.S. CDC where Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is carrying out his decades-long campaign to limit vaccines. It hopes to ...

The group was formed as a response to upheaval at the U.S. CDC where Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is carrying out his decades-long campaign to limit vaccines. It hopes to share resources to ensure vaccine access while planning responses to public health emergencies:

The DOGE Subcommittee Hearing on Weather Modification Was a Nest of Conspiracy Theorizing A House Oversight Committee hearing produced a flood of bizarre claims about cloud seeding, chemtrails, and solar geoengineering. Proven, human-driven changes to the weather were dismissed.

A House Oversight Committee hearing produced a flood of bizarre claims about cloud seeding, chemtrails, and solar geoengineering. Proven, human-driven changes to the weather were dismissed. www.wired.com/story/the-do...

Good thread about today's Monarez hearing from a first-rate public health reporter.

A record number of Congressional lawmakers aren't running for reelection in 2026. Here's the list NPR is tracking the record number of lawmakers in Congress who have already announced they don't plan to run for reelection ahead of the 2026 midterms.

NPR is tracking the record number of Congressional lawmakers who have announced they do not plan to run for reelection to their current seats in 2026.

That number currently stands at 10 senators and 27 House members.

Maine's Democratic Senate primary is taking early shape There’s a bonafide primary contest among Democrats in the Maine race for the U.S. Senate. And one of the leading contestants, Gov. Janet Mills, isn't even an official candidate yet.

One of the leading contestants, Gov. Janet Mills, isn't an official candidate yet.
Insurgent contender Graham Platner is campaigning as if she is, providing a sharp contrast in methods & rhetoric that could determine which Democrat challenges Republican US Sen. Susan Collins 🔊 📻

buff.ly/BxOurq5

Trump and Epstein are sick fucks.

Janet Mills says she's disturbed by Trump-GOP policy agenda, fueling U.S. Senate bid speculation The governor's comments came during a rare, three-stop tour with business leaders and local officials and amid pressure from some Democratic decisionmakers hoping to recruit her to challenge Republica...

The latest check-in with Gov. Janet Mills and her possible senate candidacy.

www.mainepublic.org/politics/202...

PBS cuts 15% of jobs in wake of federal funding cut After Congress clawed back public media funding, PBS says it's cutting 15% of its staff, or more than 100 jobs.

PBS cuts 15% of jobs in wake of federal funding cut

My story for NPR

www.npr.org/2025/09/04/n...

YouTube video by The Heritage Foundation EJ Antoni | Respected, Proven, Ready.

The "pied piper of economics"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqmM...

Heritage is reportedly spending six figures to promote this guy's candidacy for Bureau of Labor Statistics.
www.semafor.com/article/09/0...

Bernie Sanders rallies thousands in Portland on 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour stop The well-known progressive from Vermont also used the event to boost two Democratic candidates for statewide office in Maine: former Senate President Troy Jackson, who is running for governor, and…

Harbormaster. That was the extent of Graham Platner's political experience prior to announcing his senatorial bid. On Labor Day, he and gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson joined Bernie Sanders to rally a crowd of 6,500 against the Trump admin -- and the Dem establishment 🔊 📻

Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health

We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

Pulse Newsletter: Tax Filings Shine Light On Democratic Dark Money In Maine In the summer of 2019, a nonprofit group headed by a Democratic political operative began its sustained campaign to help Democrats unseat Republican U.S.…

The follow-up story when IRS filings showed how Sixteen Thirty sprinkled the cash to an assortment of local groups prior to 2020.

www.mainepublic.org/politics/202...

New Group Uses Exploited Advocacy Rules To 'Educate' Mainers About Sen. Collins Democrats at the national level and in Maine are using a multipronged strategy to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in 2020. The plan includes the…

Here's the initial story we did about the Sixteen Thirty Fund in 2019.
www.mainepublic.org/politics/201...

A Dark Money Group Is Secretly Funding High-Profile Democratic Influencers An initiative aimed at boosting Democrats online offers influencers up to $8,000 a month to push the party line. All they have to do is keep it secret—and agree to restrictions on their content.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund, the dark money org that funneled cash to local front groups to do spade work for the Dem campaign against Susan Collins in 2020, is now funneling cash to a group trying scoop up liberal influencers -- with conditions.

buff.ly/5FizrGQ

As PBS Stations Confront Cuts, American History Takes a Hit

The PBS show "American Experience" is gone.

Staff laid off.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/a...

Also, the Labor Day rally in Portland with Bernie Sanders, Platner and gubernatorial candidate Troy Jackson has been moved to the city’s arena (seats ~9,500) to accommodate crowds. It was originally slated for the Merrill Auditorium (seats ~1,900)

DOGE Put Critical Social Security Data at Risk, Whistle-Blower Says

“Americans may be susceptible to widespread identity theft, may lose vital health care and food benefits, and the government may be responsible for reissuing every American a new Social Security number at great cost”

DOGE Put Critical Social Security Data at Risk, Whistle-Blower Says