A Day of News Showing How Far Off the Rails We Are; a New Scam Using Hotel-Reservation Info–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: May 28, 2026

Indy Digest: May 28, 2026

There are days when I want to run out the door and down the street, screaming WHAT IN THE (bad word) ARE WE DOING, PEOPLE?!

Today is one of those days.

Should our world survive this ridiculous and terrifying period in American history, people will one day look back on the Republicans who allowed all of this grift, appeasement and destruction with nothing but disdain. They’ll look back on the Democrats with disappointment for failing to mount an effective opposition.

Here are some some news stories from today—just today—showing how far off the damned rails the United States is at the moment.

NPR reports:

President Trump’s face could soon appear on a $250 bill as part of the Trump administration’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the country.

The law currently states no living president can appear on currency, but the administration is preparing for the possibility that Congress will pass legislation authorizing the special Trump bill.

“It’s all in the hands of … Capitol Hill,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the White House briefing room Thursday. “We prepared things in advance… but we will stick to the law.”

Bessent added that he didn’t think there was anything “untoward” about having the president who was in office during the country’s 250th anniversary appear on the bill. …

The president has already made history when it comes to appearing on money. Earlier this year, the Treasury Department announced Trump’s signature would appear on all new printed money—a departure from having signatures from the treasury secretary and the treasurer.

It’s part of a larger trend of Trump putting his mark on government buildings and institutions and other materials, some in effort to commemorate America’s 250th birthday.

Next up is this piece from CNN:

The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The investigation is focused on whether Carroll committed perjury in testimony tied to her two civil lawsuits against the president—one alleging he sexually abused Carroll in a New York department store in the mid-1990s, and a second for defaming her when in 2019 he repeatedly denied the assault, said she wasn’t his type and claimed she made it up to boost sales of a book.

Prosecutors’ theory hinges on a 2022 deposition statement by Carroll, 82, that she received no outside funding for her lawsuit, though it was later revealed that billionaire Reid Hoffman had paid some legal fees and expenses.

Carroll’s team declined to comment for this story. Attempts to reach Hoffman on Wednesday were unsuccessful.

The probe is the latest move in the department’s ceaseless, and somewhat strained, efforts to meet Trump’s demands to target his long-standing personal foes.

A detail CNN glossed over: Carroll won both of those cases against Trump.

Finally, Variety reports:

Disney’s ABC has submitted its license renewal applications for its eight local TV stations to the FCC as ordered by the agency—but said it is doing so “under protest.”

The FCC’s Media Bureau last month issued an unprecedented order forcing ABC to reapply for spectrum licenses for its eight owned-and-operated stations on an accelerated schedule. The move came just days after President Trump called for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over a joke the late-night host made about First Lady Melania Trump.

The FCC, led by Trump-appointed chairman Brendan Carr, officially says the early ABC license review is pursuant to the agency’s investigation into Disney and ABC’s potential violations of discrimination rules via the media conglomerate’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices. When Carr was asked at an April 30 press conference if the Kimmel joke would play a part in the FCC’s review of the ABC licenses, he responded that Disney is “going to have to come in and demonstrate that they’ve been operating in the public interest.”

In its filings Thursday, ABC does not directly cite Kimmel’s Melania joke — in which he said the First Lady had “a glow like an expectant widow”—but it does allege that the FCC is retaliating against the network for disfavored speech, noting that the order was issued soon after the MAGA uproar over Kimmel’s joke.

The network argues in its license-renewal applications that the FCC order’s “true purpose and inescapable effect are to suppress speech—to ramp up toward possible license revocation and cause the Station and others to think twice before they say something the government might dislike.” As such, ABC says, the order violates the First Amendment.

WHAT IN THE (bad word) ARE WE DOING, PEOPLE?!

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• San Diego’s KPBS looks at the ways in which some candidates for the 48th Congressional District—which includes Palm Springs and other portions of the Coachella Valley—are getting around campaign-finance laws: “Three candidates for the 48th Congressional District in San Diego have campaign website pages that allow them to avoid campaign finance rules meant to prevent coordination with groups that are not affiliated with the campaign but spend money on their behalf. The practice known as ‘redboxing’ is widespread. ‘Groups and candidates are finding ways to work together to skirt the spirit of the law, if not the letter of the law in some cases,’ said Michael Beckel with Issue One, a nonprofit based in D.C. that was founded in 2013 to reduce the influence of money in politics. … Ammar Campa-Najjar, Brandon Riker, and San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert are all running to represent the 48th Congressional District. … All three candidates also have publicly available ‘media’ pages on their websites that include specific instructions about messaging and demographic targets.”

• Information stolen from hotels is being used by scammers to create very specific, detailed phishing attempts. Wired explains: “These swiped trip details, such as booking names and reservation information, are then being repurposed by cybercriminals to create highly targeted phishing messages used to steal credit card information. At least 350 hotels, vacation rentals, motels, and guesthouses in 50 different countries have been caught up in so-called reservation hijacking scams, according to an analysis of phishing messages and cybercriminal infrastructure by security company Norton. Researchers say the use of legitimate booking information in phishing messages may increase the chances that someone clicks on a fraudulent link and hands over other sensitive details to criminals. ‘This is really targeted,’ says Luis Corrons, who led the research by Norton’s parent company, Gen. Phishing websites the company analyzed included hotel names, differing prices for each victim, with specific check-in and check-out details being added to the pages. ‘It’s spear phishing targeted to the specific victim with the real details of the reservation.’”

• This Washington Post headline is a big, fat YIKES: “The University of Florida and other red-state schools are fostering a conservative vision for the humanities to compete against courses with more diverse perspectives.” The lede: “Students in both (University of Florida) classrooms were considering historic events. In Introduction to Sociology, the discussion was about globalization. Three buildings over, a Civil Discourse class was debating 1798 America and the federal government’s battle with the states for supremacy. … One of these classes is being nurtured; the other strangled. The Civil Discourse class is offered by the Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education, which in just a few years has grown from an idea into a full-fledged school with nearly 50 professors, four majors, 69 classes this spring and tens of millions of dollars appropriated directly by the Florida legislature. Not so for Introduction to Sociology. Beginning this fall, the class—which covers issues of class, inequality, race and gender—will no longer count as one of the general education courses required for graduation. Enrollment is expected to plummet. The dichotomy stems from a conservative backlash to the liberalism that prevails on many campuses, something a growing number of schools have acknowledged.“

• I find this story appalling, depressing … and maybe slightly encouraging? The New York Times (gift link) reports on how Peter Thiel is “shopping” for a new country, should the U.S. go to hell, in his eyes: “Over the past two months, Mr. Thiel has met with the (Argentina’s) president, Javier Milei, and his ministers; purchased a mansion in one of Buenos Aires’ most exclusive neighborhoods; and hosted a dinner with local economists where he discussed the Antichrist, one of his favorite conversation topics, according to Argentine officials and people familiar with Mr. Thiel’s activities. … His new roots in Argentina are partly motivated by his concerns about the direction of the United States, the people familiar with his thinking say, particularly California, where an initiative on November’s ballot could lead to a significant tax on billionaires. Argentina, a nation relatively insulated from potential conflicts in the Northern Hemisphere, also fits as a potential escape hatch from other risks that Mr. Thiel has publicly warned about—nuclear war and runaway artificial intelligence. But Mr. Thiel has also been energized by what he’s discovered in Argentina, finding harmony with Mr. Milei’s libertarian slash-and-burn governance and becoming enamored with Buenos Aires’ vibrancy, the people said.”

• Today’s recall news involves … lawn chairs! And the word “amputation” is involved. Eek! MassLive says: “A nationwide recall has been issued for Giantex outdoor lounge chairs after a consumer’s finger was amputated while adjusting the furniture, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Consumers are urged to immediately stop using the recalled chairs and contact Giantex for a full refund. ‘Consumers can place their fingers in a pinch point when adjusting the lounge chair, posing an amputation risk,’ the recall warns. … Giantex Inc., based in Ontario, California, distributed the chairs, which were manufactured in China. They were sold online at Giantex.com and Amazon.com from August 2023 through October 2025 for between $75 and $90, according to the agency’s recall notice.”

• And finally … the People.com headline is “Dog in Parked Car Accidentally Shoots Woman With Shotgun.” OK! The story says: “Police in Scottsbluff, Neb., say they were called to a convenience store on Saturday after receiving a report that a person had been shot by a BB gun at 12:07 p.m. local time. While the police were on the way, they received updated information that the incident involved a shotgun, Scottsbluff Police told PEOPLE. When officers arrived, they found a truck with an attached camper. The passenger-side door of the vehicle had taken damage consistent with a shotgun blast. According to the Scottsbluff Police, the truck’s owner had pulled into the convenience store. While the vehicle was parked, a dog in the back seat moved from one side of the vehicle to the other, triggering a shotgun that had a live shell in the chamber, causing it to fire. The truck’s owner was not inside the vehicle at the time. A woman stopped at a traffic light nearby was shot in her arm due to the accidental firing. The woman’s injury was not believed to be life-threatening, and a family member transported her to Regional West Medical Center for treatment.”

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