Today's Trump horror show news

https://www.levernews.com/r/1981ab78?m=c6003dda-9d8f-4660-984e-d23cf62e2a2e ~~ recommended by newestbeginning ~~  Today’s Lever story: A 22-year-old died after his insurer jacked up the price of his asthma inhaler. Now, his dad is on a mission to take down those he believes responsible.  Spend three minutes reading this 953-word newsletter to learn about:  The gambling companies championing a gambling tax. Which pesticide lobbyist was appointed to regulate pesticides. How your neighbors voted in the 2024 election. Why the chemical lobby is playing both sides. SPONSORED American Scare is a vital exposé of how a state’s government destroyed the lives of its Black and queer citizens in the 20th century. Author Robert W. Fieseler, an investigative journalist focused on forgotten histories, used a secret trove of primary source documents that have been decoded and de-censored for the first time to describe how marginalized residents were targeted, and the devastating aftermath. It is a must-read. Get Your Copy & Support The Lever TODAY'S NUGGETS  The House always wins (in the tax bill). A last-minute provision in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill tightens a tax loophole that professional gamblers use to deduct gambling losses from their income — after online betting sites like DraftKings and FanDuel lobbied on the loophole as they beefed up political operations in Washington. Is Big Gambling trying to do good? Not exactly: Online betting companies prey on amateur gamblers rather than professionals who are better at beating the odds, and limiting this tax incentive could dissuade experienced gamblers from playing.   No Flex zone. Here’s another reason to skip Prime Day online sales. Amazon’s found a new way to screw workers: an Uber-style gig-work delivery platform that erodes labor standards even further than the company’s long-criticized existing package-delivery program. The new Flex program manages thousands of drivers who use their own vehicles to deliver packages and groceries. These workers are classified as independent contractors, denying them basic employment benefits and labor rights nominally granted to other Amazon delivery drivers. According to the nonprofit National Employment Law Project, Flex drivers are paid less than minimum wage, digitally tracked through their phones, and forced to waive their right to file class-action lawsuits over their treatment. Amazon also uses Flex workers as a scab labor force when its other drivers go on strike.   Poisoning the White House. The Trump administration just tapped a longtime pesticide lobbyist for a top EPA role regulating pesticides, according to Sludge. Before his new gig, Kyle Kunkler worked for years at the lobbying groups American Soybean Association and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, where he advocated for policies promoting commercial pesticides like glyphosate, chemical fertilizers, and farmers’ access to genetically engineered crops. So much for promises to make America healthy again by curbing environmental toxins.  Keeping CEOs’ raises under wraps. Since 2020, median CEO pay has increased 31 percent to $16 million per year. In the same period, worker pay increased just 13 percent to $74,000 per year. Simply put, CEOs are being paid 216 times more than their workers. But at a recent SEC roundtable, Commissioner Mark Uyeda criticized pay transparency requirements, telling industry players that revealing CEO-worker pay ratios inappropriately “name and shame” corporate executives. Poor guys. YOU LOVE TO SEE IT Asylum is a right. A federal judge ruled on July 2 that the Trump administration cannot deny entry to people crossing the southern border to apply for asylum, a rule that Trump signed on his first day in office. The judge’s 128-page ruling concluded that neither the Constitution nor federal immigration laws empower the president to defy Congress’s 1980 law establishing a right for people to flee persecution. NEWS DIVE More chemical fires coming soon. The Trump administration announced plans to shutter the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigations Board, the nation’s chemical accident watchdog. It’s Trump’s latest gift to the chemical industry. This spring, Trump’s EPA moved to roll back Biden-era chemical safety regulations and took down a webpage informing the public about dangerous chemical plants after industry lobbyists demanded they do so. The chemical lobby plays both sides. In corporate media reports, chemical industry groups offered tepid words of the support for the Chemical Safety Board, with the sector’s largest lobbying group, the American Chemistry Council, telling Bloomberg Law that the agency has “served as a valuable resource for industry stakeholders.” But the industry has spent years pushing to strip away guardrails designed to prevent chemical accidents — and it donated generously to Trump’s campaign and inauguration. The American Chemistry Council spent a record $22 million lobbying federal lawmakers last year. Both the council and the chemical industry’s other main lobbying group, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, did not respond to inquiries from The Lever about their position on the board’s fate. About that mushroom cloud... The Chemical Safety Board recently uncovered what it called “disturbing” details of negligence at a chemical facility that engulfed an Atlanta suburb in a black mushroom cloud for several days last year. According to the agency, the facility was storing twice the amount of the water-reactive chemicals that caused the fire than the company originally reported, and inspectors had documented sprinkler-system failures at the facility for years. A faulty sprinkler ultimately caused the fire, which residents worry will lead to long-term health issues. This investigation is one of many that could be shelved if the Chemical Safety Board is shuttered. A second try. Trump tried to ax the Chemical Safety Board under his first administration, too, but faced opposition from Congress. At the time, his administration cited complaints from industry for his rationale; in budget documents, officials wrote that the Safety Board too often focused on “the need for greater regulation of industry,” which “frustrated” the chemical lobby. Then, as now, lobbying groups issued mealy-mouthed statements about the value of the Chemical Safety Board’s investigations, but didn’t fully disavow the Trump administration’s claims it was acting in the industry’s interests. These efforts may have laid the groundwork for Trump’s new attempt to kill the board — and bring more chemical fires to our neighborhoods. Reporting contributed by Katya Schwenk STAT OF THE DAY See how your neighborhood voted in the 2024 election in the most detailed visual map yet, from The New York Times. DOOMSCROLL DISTRACTIONS  Take a breath. But make sure it’s the right one.  It-girls live among us. An international team of researchers may have cracked the code on what makes someone “cool.”  Wimbledon’s automation scheme isn’t going smoothly. And they keep blaming the ball boy. FINAL THOUGHT Meet the secret police who definitely do not want to be called secret police.