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  Let’s celebrate! Join us for updates and community conversation post election. We’re also collecting food for locked out BP USW workers and their families. We’re requesting unopened, unexpired, shelf-stable food. See suggestions above. Please register here--and bring a friend! |
Rally with us every Sat., 12-1, at the Highway of Flags Veterans Memorial on the SE corner of Ridge and 41 in Highland. Click here for more info and to let us know you’re coming.
Election News
| There will probably be more of the pain and suffering and cruelty we’ve experienced under this administration. Two years is a lifetime and the President of the United States is the most powerful person on the planet. But Donald Trump has lost the country. By next year, three-quarters of Americans will have Democratic governors, and more than half will have Democratic legislatures, too. (Offline) The Senate will have at least 54 Democrats to 46 Republicans, but the likely result after Alaska and Mississippi counts are completed will be 56 Democrats and 44 Republicans. See national Senate election results here. The House will have at least 254 Democrats but may have far more since several races have not yet been called. Democrats will likely have an 83 seat majority. See those results here. The Searchlight Institute has an interesting and informative analysis of the election and insight into continued electoral success: https://www.searchlightinstitute.org/research/searchlight-2026-entrance-poll/ |
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 In Indiana legislating has also become more Democratic with the addition of 16 Democratic House seats and 4 Senate seats. In addition, two top statewide offices went to the Democratic candidates. Jessica Bailey will be our next Comptroller and plans to bring far more transparency to the office. Read more about her and the office at Indiana Capital Chronicle. Beau Bayh will be our next Secretary of State. Read his plans here.Many local offices also shifted from red to blue. View all election results in Indiana here. Both constitutional amendment referendums passed. See the results here. View Lake County results here. All school referendums in Lake County passed. Voter turnout in Lake County was 39.52%. Find Laporte County election results here. The Michigan City school referendum failed. Voter turnout in Laporte County was 40.6%. The Indiana House District 1 race shifted 25.63 points toward Democrats. In Lake County the shift was 26.7 points; in Laporte County it was 22.3; in Porter County the shift was 24.28. |
National
Congress
| Congress reconvenes next week. The new Congress will be sworn in Jan. 3 so for the next 2 months Republicans are still in control. Here’s what to expect. (Yahoo) Congress must pass a funding bill to keep the government open or the government will shut down Dec. 12. Republican leaders are reportedly eyeing a bill that would lock in current spending levels for a full year, but Democrats have an incentive to advocate for a short-term bill that sets them up to enact their own spending priorities once they’re in full control of Congress. Congress must also pass an annual defense policy bill. The Trump administration has asked Congress for $1.5 trillion in military funding for 2027. Democrats have balked at that number, demanding that the price tag be reduced by hundreds of billions of dollars. Reports suggest that the administration may be open to shrinking its budget request, but landing on a final number that both parties and the president can agree on could prove challenging — particularly if the White House insists on including more funding for the war with Iran. In the House outgoing representative Thomas Massie plans to introduce articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth. Massie also plans to call for a vote on another Epstein bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act II. Survivors will be able to get their own records, State Attorneys General can prosecute crimes, the DOJ can be taken to court for keeping critical files hidden. Massie says he has the signatures to force a vote on both issues through a discharge petition. Some Republican lawmakers have begun advocating for their party to pass one last major budget bill jam-packed with GOP priorities. It would be a reconciliation bill that would require only republican votes, the same as the big beautiful bill that cut Medicaid, Snap and ACA subsidies while cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy. Another republican priority is a bipartisan proposal to overhaul the permitting process for energy projects, which would make it easier to build both renewable and fossil fuel infrastructure. There’s also a sweeping slate of reforms to college sports In addition, a number of Trump-nominated judges are awaiting confirmation And cryptocurrency legislation could be addressed if there’s time. |
In other news
| A federal judge blocked construction of President Trump’s arch, stopping work the administration had hoped to begin immediately. Just before midnight Friday, District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan issued an order — finalized and made public minutes later — barring the government from any construction work for 14 days, granting a request filed days earlier by the governments of D.C. and Virginia. (NPR) Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney overseeing the Justice Department’s “grand conspiracy” investigation into Trump’s perceived political enemies resigned. His departure follows the resignations of Joseph diGenova, who led the inquiry, and Kurt Olsen, an election denier who took part in the “Stop the Steal” campaign and promoted baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. National Security Division chief John Eisenberg and Civil Rights Division chief Harmeet Dhillon also resigned. The investigation produced no charges. (CNN) Billionaires and the ultra-rich are burning more carbon than than most of the world. The world’s richest 1%—just 8 million people who make, on average, $442,000 a year—produce far more emissions than the poorest 3.5 billion, states the report. Someone in the richest 0.1% emits 48 times more CO2 than the average person in the U.S. over the course of a year. (Time) |
| To find and contact your Members of Congress: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials To find and contact your Indiana legislators: http://iga.in.gov/legislative/find-legislators/ |
