Source: Cato Institute
by Patrick G Eddington & Jeffrey A Singer
“Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), law enforcement usually needs a warrant, court order or subpoena to access a patient’s medical records. However, ICE has taken advantage of a legal loophole by obtaining insurance claims data from third-party clearinghouses and data brokers. By accessing these alternative channels, federal agents can avoid legal protections designed to safeguard patient privacy. … ICE’s use of these databases serves as a stark reminder that tools designed for legitimate purposes, such as detecting insurance fraud, can be quietly turned into instruments of surveillance. ICE’s misuse of medical claims data not only threatens undocumented migrants but also, by eroding trust in the public health system, endangers all Americans.” (07/30/25)
“I’ve highlighted the progress St. Louis has made in reducing crime in recent blog posts. The improving data are positive news, and city leaders have taken several steps in the right direction to make this possible. While St. Louis still experiences high levels of crime well above the national average, things are trending in the right direction with homicide rates at the lowest in a decade However, even though crime is declining, that doesn’t mean that citizens’ perception of crime is changing.. Even if this trend of lower crime continues, it likely won’t significantly impact how safe people in the city feel. People don’t tend to make judgements of safety based on numbers alone.” (07/30/25)
Source: Property and Environment Research Center
by Manuela Caldas
“Paradise Valley, with its open plains, mountain views, and proximity to Yellowstone National Park, is one of the most stunning places to ranch. But sharing space with the wild comes at a cost. This land isn’t just home to ranchers. It’s part of a much larger, living system that supports migrating elk, roaming grizzlies, and countless other species that move in and out of Yellowstone. These animals don’t recognize property lines. They follow ancient paths that now cut through private ranches like the Durgans’. For generations, families here have welcomed wildlife. They’ve made room. But sharing space comes with a cost.” (07/31/25)
“The restraint movement’s attachment to Trump has compromised its ability to offer a credible alternative to American foreign policy orthodoxy.” (07/30/25)
“The Covid era cut through traditional ideological paradigms like knives on tissue. Nothing behaved as we might have expected. The civil libertarians were nowhere in sight. The courts did not work. Big business and media fully cooperated. The major religions caved. The national security state thrived, while both parties let it all happen. The population was mercilessly propagandized and pillaged with no resistance from the commanding heights. … The state did not save us from large corporations and the top layers in commercial society did not save us from the state. They worked together to strangle the liberty of everyone else.” (07/30/25)
“When I was a cub reporter at the New Yorker in the early 1980s, New York City was actually a somewhat seedy and dangerous (if fascinating) place (sort of fitting the image currently assigned it by MAGA ideologues who have ignored its almost complete makeover into a remarkably safe enclave). In those days, anyone wandering the Times Square neighborhood where I worked could count on seeing a three-card monte game on every block, with fast-talking card sharps hustling the tourists. It wasn’t very sophisticated, but it must have worked because they were out there every day. The grift playing out this week in the federal government around climate is no more complicated, but it too relies on speed and distraction.” (07/31/25)
“Two things appear to be true about the ongoing controversy over Donald Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and his administration’s reluctance to release all the files related to the case: 1. Donald Trump will survive this, as he has survived so many other scandals, controversies and gaffes over the past decade. 2. This story has reached critical velocity — and isn’t going anywhere.” (07/30/25)
“The famine in Gaza is entirely man-made. Like other atrocity famines, it is the result of deliberate policy choices. The Israeli government has been deliberately starving the people of Gaza for the better part of two years. As more than 100 aid groups said in a joint statement, ‘the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza.’ Since the start of the war in October 2023, the Israeli government has been inflicting collective punishment on the civilian population by using starvation as a weapon, devastating Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, and destroying the health care system.” (07/30/25)
“In June, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced she would end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti, removing legal protections from more than 500,000 Haitian nationals living in the United States. Earlier this year, she rescinded TPS for over 348,000 Venezuelans and 55,000 Hondurans and Nicaraguans. With Cameroon and Nepal already terminated, more than one million TPS holders are now poised to lose lawful status in 2025 …. Many TPS holders work in America’s most labor-starved sectors, including construction, home healthcare, food processing, hospitality, and agriculture. Employers who have long relied on TPS workers will be forced to terminate experienced staff while scrambling to hire replacements in an exceptionally tight labor market. … There may be a solution to capitalize on these workers’ talents and ensure they can work and thrive in safe communities — unfortunately for the U.S. economy, those communities are abroad.” (07/30/25)
“If Donald Trump’s goal is to strain the immigration system to such a point that it merely serves as an avenue for the fast-tracking of deportations, he is certainly making headway. The barriers have been piling up: ending bond hearings for undocumented immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally, kidnapping people at their immigration court hearings and places of work, entrapping new arrivals who fail to register with the government, and imposing significant penalties on those who do not comply with removal orders. In an added twist, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which unlocks unprecedented levels of funding for immigration enforcement and border security, creates a fiscal minefield of onerous processing fees and penalties. Most of these fees are new and cannot be waived, and the goal is not necessarily to mitigate the government’s giant budget deficit, but to price migrants out of entering or staying in the country, even legally.” (07/31/25)
