Heidi Pascual's web site

By Angelo Villagomez & Devon Lespier


April 15--Typhoon Sinlaku made landfall across the remote U.S. island territories of Saipan and Tinian as a Category 4 storm on Tuesday, devastating homes, infrastructure, and a way of life. Ravaged during the storm by sustained winds of 150 mph and by as much as 25 inches of rain, entire neighborhoods are flooded, and power and communications lines have collapsed. For Saipan, the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands and a community already stretched thin, the destruction is overwhelming. Recovery will be difficult as the region’s infrastructure is fragile and supply chains stretch across thousands of miles of ocean. Yet Typhoon Sinlaku is not an isolated catastrophe. It is the third major typhoon to batter

Saipan in barely a decade and the strongest one to strike the Northern Mariana Islands since Super Typhoon Yutu destroyed 3,000 homes and caused more than 130 injuries—clear evidence that climate change is no longer a future threat. Climate change is here, and America’s most marginalized communities are living on the front lines of more destructive, more costly, and more destabilizing storms in the places with the fewest resources to prepare and recover. Saipan has endured this before. In 2015, Typhoon Soudelor tore across the island, cutting power for months and causing widespread destruction to homes and businesses. Just three years later, Super Typhoon Yutu—one of the strongest recorded storms to strike U.S. soil—left the island in ruins, destroying or severely damaging homes and collapsing much of the local economy. Recovery from Typhoon Yutu—made more difficult by the COVID-19 pandemic—was still incomplete when Typhoon Sinlaku hit. -- READ MORE

By Michael Sozan

In a powerful display of deepening nonviolent mobilization, an estimated 8 million Americans gathered at “No Kings” rallies across the United States to protest the authoritarian policies and actions of the Trump administration. In approximately 3,300 cities and towns in all 50 states, people across the political spectrum peacefully exercised their First Amendment right to dissent, setting yet another record for a single-day U.S. protest.

Given the current trajectory, the nation may soon see 12 million Americans, or approximately 3.5 percent of the population, engaged in multiple forms of nonviolent mobilization. As the Center for American Progress has discussed and as political science research shows, when 3.5 percent of a nation’s population peacefully mobilizes and sustains itself at key moments, the government can be forced to meet their demands. Already, people-powered mobilizations in Minnesota during the first few months of 2026 successfully forced the Trump administration to reduce the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents in the state.

The nonviolent ‘No Kings’ and Minnesota mobilizations were powerful and effective

The nationwide “No Kings” protests held on Saturday, March 28, are the most vivid real-time example of the increasing depth and breadth of opposition to the Trump administration’s policies. Everyday Americans participated in all 50 states, swelling their ranks to an estimated 8 million participants across approximately 3,300 locations.

-- READ MORE

By Emily Gee, Kyle Ross, & Akshay Thyagarajan


Although the Trump administration announced Tuesday it had reached a provisional two-week ceasefire with Iran, global supply chains will still be reeling for months from the conflict and its upheaval to oil and gas production. Some consequences of the war—such as a higher baseline level of risk in the Persian Gulf region—will likely persist even if traffic again flows through the Strait of Hormuz and oil production comes back online, resulting in higher costs for shipping, fuel, and other commodities. The Trump administration’s war of choice caused unnecessary loss of life, displaced civilians, and has seen both sides damage critical infrastructure across the region. The war accomplished none of the Trump administration’s objectives, unclear as they were. Iran is now led by a more defiant, hardline leader it retains enriched uranium stockpiles it is in a position to rebuild its weapons arsenal and now it has effectively established control over the critical Strait of Hormuz. The war has also been economically costly. As of late March, it had cost the U.S. government an estimated $25 billion, with costs beyond that estimated at around $500 million per day.


The war has already taken an economic toll on U.S. consumers, businesses, and farmers The war sharply drove up prices for oil, which as of April 8, 2026, still remain well above pre-war levels. (see Table 1) Those higher fuel prices are expected to show up in the March inflation numbers that the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis will release on Friday. Wall Street analysts are expecting the March consumer price index to come in nearly a full percentage point higher than February’s rate, which would result in a year-over-year increase of 3.3 percent. -- READ MORE

By Bobby Kogan

April 21--Earlier today, Senate Republicans released the text of their budget resolution, the first step in the process of enacting a reconciliation bill, which can avoid a filibuster and thus pass even without any support from congressional Democrats. The budget resolution shows only the broad areas of how the budget will be changed, with the details to be filled in later in committee markups. However, from a mixture of the public reporting and what Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has said, we know the current plan of Senate Republicans: Provide around $70 billion in funding to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for 3 1/2 more fiscal years—through the end of the Trump administration and through the end of fiscal year 2029—primarily through money to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, all while providing zero dollars of relief for struggling Americans.


The budget resolution instructs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) to increase deficits by no more than $70 billion over the next 10 years it also instructs the Senate Judiciary Committee not to exceed $70 billion in increased deficits. In total, that could technically allow for $140 billion more for DHS—or even more if the committees find a commensurate amount of offsets for any spending they want to do above $140 billion. However, public reporting indicates the Senate Republican plan seems to be increasing spending for DHS by around $70 billion in total.


The committee instructions were written to allow for flexibility, due to how complicated the committee jurisdiction is for various parts of DHS. -- READ MORE

By Allie Preston


U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers should be held to the same standards of transparent and accountable policing as state and local law enforcement, which require officers to have visible identification and allow face coverings only in limited circumstances. Deploying unidentifiable officers makes communities less safe by unnecessarily escalating tension in interactions between ICE, CBP, and community members emboldening dangerous impersonators and preventing accountability for misconduct.


What standards do state and local law enforcement agencies follow for identification and face coverings?


Across the country, most state and local officers are required to wear uniforms that include agency and/or personal identifiers and are restricted from wearing face coverings as part of police department policy.


For example: • South Dakota Highway Patrol: General Order 5.0301— “All uniformed members shall wear an approved insignia of the Highway Patrol on the Ike Jacket, winter and summer shirts, coat, and BDU’s.” o 0305—“Individual name bars, of an approved type, shall be always worn by each uniformed member while in uniform, unless instructed otherwise by a supervisor.” • Metropolitan Nashville Police Department in Tennessee: “The badge is a component part of the uniform, except for the utility uniform and lightweight jacket. -- READ MORE

By Sam Zeno, Mariam Rashid, & Jenny Roland-Shea + 2 more
Nature is more than awe-inspiring scenery it serves as infrastructure to support healthy, thriving communities. Every American should have the right to readily access its benefits. Access to nature and time spent outdoors provide measurable health benefits across virtually every dimension of well-being. In contrast, nature loss translates directly into lives shortened and lost. It means sicker lives for those trapped in landscapes stripped of the life-sustaining benefits that nature provides. Communities without nearby nature are more vulnerable to extreme weather and climate change, experience worse health outcomes across nearly every measure, and leave the next generation with a diminished inheritance of health and a greater gap in its innate connection to nature.


A new analysis from the Center for American Progress, Justice Outside, and Conservation Science Partners provides an updated look at who bears the brunt of nature loss by taking a deeper dive into understanding the nationwide problem. The analysis finds that across the continental United States, there are three times more communities of color living in nature-deprived areas than white communities, and three-quarters of those living in nature-deprived places have low household incomes. This new analysis uses the latest available data and a new metric to measure both the distribution and severity of humans’ impact on the environment and how nature loss is connected to racial disparities, social vulnerabilities, public health issues, pollution, and climate risks across the contiguous United States. The nature gap is not experienced equally across all communities those with limited access to nature also often face the greatest exposure to pollution sources and climate risks. -- READ MORE