El Random Hero

DHS Wants States to Hand Over Driver’s License Data for Citizenship Checks It’s the latest step in an unprecedented initiative to pool confidential data that the Trump administration claims will help identify noncitizens on voter rolls and tighten immigration enforcement.

Legal experts called DHS’ move to use driver’s license data for citizenship checks more evidence of federal overreach.

“The administration wants to get as much data as it can, however it can, whenever it can.”

With @texastribune.org

Palestinians face hunger, cold and loss amid ongoing Israeli siege on Gaza Despite the ceasefire, Israel’s strikes and severe restrictions on aid leave Gaza’s civilians struggling to survive.

Despite the ceasefire, Israel’s strikes and severe restrictions on aid leave Gaza’s civilians struggling to survive.

Data centers are eating the economy — and we’re not even using them | Fortune The average server utilization rate hovers between 12%-18% of capacity, while an estimated 10 million servers sit completely idle, representing $30 billion in wasted capital

We need more data centers!

#Satire

fortune.com/2025/08/11/d...

ICE TRÄCKER LOS ANGELES: CBP / VENICE & NEW HAMPSHIRE / 3:33AM / STAGING / HUNTINGTON PARK: СВР / 3216 E FLORENCE AVE / 6:28AM / 2 KIDNAPPINGS / LONG BEACH: СВР / PACIFIC & HILL / 9:00AM / SEEN GETTING FOOD / LOS ANGELES: CBP / FLORENCE & MCKINLEY / 8:00AM / 1 KIDNAPPING / LOS ANGELES: СВР / SLAUSON & MIRAMONTE / 9:25AM / UNSURE IF INDIVIDUAL WAS KIDNAPPED / HUNTINGTON PARK: СВР / 5731 BICKETT ST / 9:45AM / 1 KIDNAPPING / HUNTINGTON PARK: СВР / 53RD & MALABAR / 10:03AM / 1 KIDNAPPING / LOS ANGELES: ICE / S VICTORIA & VENICE / 10:15AM / SIGHTING / 11/02/2025 12:12 am LOS ANGELES: СВР / E 761H & WADSWORTH / 10:18AM / 1 KIDNAPPING / HUNTINGTON PARK: CBP / HOME DEPOT / 3040 E SLAUSON AVE / 10:20AM / AT LEAST 1 KIDNAPPING / HUNTINGTON PARK: СВР / RESTAURANT / ALAMEDA & GAGE / 10:20AM / WORKERS FLED, UNSURE IF ANYONE TAKEN. REPORT INDICATES PEOPLE RUNNING FROM THE METRO ON HOLMES & E SLAUSON WERE TAKEN./. LOS ANGELES: СВР / 12'* AND VERMONT / 11:30AM / UNSURE OF TOTAL # OF KIDNAPPINGS, AT LEAST 1 KIDNAPPING By Izzy Ramirez

🧊 🚨

Air Pollution From Industrial Facilities Is Far Worse Than Estimated The Trump administration has put a stop to EPA rules that would have required more than 130 industrial facilities to install air monitors to measure pollution. Millions of people living near these pla...

The Trump administration has put a stop to EPA rules that would have required more than 130 industrial facilities to install air monitors to measure pollution.

Millions of people living near these plants face an increased risk of cancer.

By @lisalsong.bsky.social, 📸: @annie-flanagan.bsky.social

🙌🏽

Scenes from tonight’s continuing ICE out of L.A. protest at the MDC. @el_tragon_de_LA

Gunman kills three at Target store in US state of Texas Victims not immediately identified after deadly attack at popular store in the state capital, Austin.

Three people have been killed after a gunman opened fire in the parking lot of a Target store in Austin, Texas, according to US local authorities.
www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/...

Oregon DMV brings in millions selling your information. Here's how. Oregon’s DMV brings in millions of dollars a year selling drivers’ personal information to qualified buyers, from insurance companies to private investigators.

“No one should profit from our personal data, especially without our consent,” EFF’s Lena Cohen told KATU News. “The data broker industry is extremely opaque, and the lack of transparency makes it hard to know when our privacy rights are being violated.”
katu.com/news/invest...

ICE arrested these immigrants in San Francisco and sent them 2,400 miles away—to Hawaii One may be mentally impaired, said a judge who granted him a continuance prior to his arrest.

ICE doesn't even have a detention center in Hawaii. The men have been put in a federal prison there. Very far from home, and presumably their lawyers. Via @missionlocal.org

Palestinian American Student Sereen Haddad Wins Diploma Withheld by VCU over Peaceful Protests www.democracynow.org/2025/7/30/he...

How a Group of Lesbians Provided Lifesaving Care During the AIDS Crisis Amid abandonment and fear surrounding the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, a group of lesbians became a lifeline for AIDS patients.

Between 1983 and 1992, the Blood Sisters hosted 12 blood drives, demonstrating sustained commitment for nearly a decade. ⤵️

F

Sunday: El Pachuco Zoot Suits is screening the film "Zoot Suit" at 2pm (tho the community event starts earlier). www.instagram.com/p/DMqYh6sSS9Z/

This weekend marks the 83rd anniversary of the Sleepy Lagoon murder of José Díaz (Aug 2, 1942). @amexperiencepbs.bsky.social: www.pbs.org/wgbh/america...

YouTube video by ProPublica Beatings, Humiliation, Psychological Abuse: What Venezuelan Men Experienced Inside CECOT

"ICE Kidnapped us from the United States.

At one point we asked, 'Where are we going?'

And they said, 'Don't worry, you're going to love the surprise we have for you.'"

First-hand accounts from the men Trump disappeared to a Salvadoran prison:

Oliver Wang "documents how the availability of cars and trucks helped propel Japanese immigrants into professions such as farming and gardening to great success (at a time when the US wouldn’t let Japanese people own land)," @cmonstah.bsky.social. @kcrw.com: email.kcrw.com/cruising-j-t... #AAPI

Now That They’re Free, Venezuelan Men Want the World to Know What They Endured in CECOT Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration say they endured months of physical and mental abuse inside a Salvadoran prison. Though happy to be home, they say the fact that they were released ...

NEW: We interviewed nine Venezuelan men who were sent to CECOT by the Trump administration.

Some said their feelings about what happened were still raw.

All of the men said they were abused physically and mentally during their imprisonment.

Disabled People “Will Die” as GOP Medicaid Cuts Go into Effect, Warns Disability Rights Leader People with disabilities are among those most heavily impacted by Trump’s cuts to Medicaid. “I know so many people like me, disabled adults living and thriving now, who were able to get to adulthood...

Disabled People "Will Die" as GOP Medicaid Cuts Go into Effect, Warns Disability Rights Leader

“Beyond Atrocious”: Arwa Damon on Desperation & Hunger in Gaza as Israel Continues Blocking Most Aid In Gaza, “the situation is beyond atrocious.” Aid worker Arwa Damon, a former CNN journalist and the founder of INARA, a nonprofit currently providing medical and mental healthcare to children in...

"Beyond Atrocious": Arwa Damon on Desperation & Hunger in Gaza as Israel Continues Blocking Most Aid

Reproductive Coercion Is State Abuse, Argues Kylie Cheung "Pregnancy has increasingly become a weapon to be wielded against domestic violence victims—and those who help them."

"Pregnancy has increasingly become a weapon to be wielded against domestic violence victims—and those who help them."

Read an excerpt from journalist @kylietcheung.bsky.social's new book on reproductive coercion:

“The Most Peaceful Man”: West Bank Mourns Odeh Hadalin, Palestinian Activist Killed by Israeli Settler Family and friends are reeling after an Israeli settler shot and killed Palestinian activist Odeh Muhammad Hadalin, an athlete, teacher and father of three young children. Hadalin helped produce the Oscar-winning...

"The Most Peaceful Man": West Bank Mourns Odeh Hadalin, Palestinian Activist Killed by Israeli Settler

The long line of people waiting outside Cole’s. Photo taken from across the street.

The Cole’s neon sign (as seen in the day time) that reads “Cole’s Originators French Dipped Sandwiches Since 1908. Cocktails.”

A stained glass window that reads “Cole’s Game Room.”

Paying my last respects to this beloved Los Angeles institution.

This was the line for Cole’s at 2pm today.

“Designed as Death Traps”: U.S. Veteran Reveals Rampant War Crimes at GHF Sites in Gaza As more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid at militarized aid distribution sites run by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a former GHF security contractor tells...

"Designed as Death Traps": Former Green Beret Who Worked at Gaza Food Sites Reveals Rampant War Crimes, Calls It "Un-American" for U.S. to Back Israel's Starvation

He Was Asked About His Tattoos and a TikTok Video in Court. Five Days Later, He Was in a Salvadoran Prison. Albert Jesús Rodríguez Parra was one of more than 230 Venezuelan immigrants the Trump administration sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. After his release, he says he wants the world to ...

14/ Rodríguez told me he wants the world to know what happened in El Salvador — daily beatings, humiliation, psychological abuse.

“There is no reason for what I went through,” he said. “I didn’t deserve that.”
www.propublica.org/article/vene...

“We lost lots of food and water,” a protester told L.A. TACO after the sweep “That’s all material stuff though, we’re not going to let that break us.”

Full story: lataco.com/police-sweep...

By @shoton35mm.bsky.social

DAILY MEMO: ICE Arrests Another Citizen and More
@eltragon.bsky.social

ICE Detained 6-Year-Old with Cancer for Over a Month: “He and His Sister Cried Every Night As Congress approved some $45 billion to expand ICE’s immigration detention capacity, including the jailing of families and children, we look at the case of one family. In May, plainclothes ICE agents...

ICE Detained 6-Year-Old with Cancer for Over a Month: "He and His Sister Cried Every Night

In overcrowded ICE jails, detainees are squeezed together in cages with little to no privacy.

Researchers from @hrw.org spoke to women who have been forced to use shared toilets while "male detainees from other cells could actually stand on a chair and look in and watch them."

“You Feel Like Your Life Is Over”: HRW Report Exposes Abuses in Trump’s Immigration Jails in Florida A new report titled “You Feel Like Your Life Is Over” details the dangerous and abusive conditions faced by immigrants held at three ICE jails in Miami, Florida, since Trump returned to office. One...

"You Feel Like Your Life Is Over": HRW Report Exposes Abuses in Trump's Immigration Jails in Florida

Commentary: LAFC fans put aside their rivalry with Galaxy to stand in solidarity against ICE LAFC's supporters' union made it clear that standing in solidarity against ICE raids in the community is rightfully more important than their rivalry with the Galaxy.

"Soccer, by custom and breeding, is an immigrant sport. Like pizza, sushi and Halloween, soccer was imported to the U.S... So for many soccer fans, the violent raids, which upended families and communities, were personal." Great column by @kbaxter11.bsky.social: www.latimes.com/sports/socce...