For years we’ve noted how this country’s corrupt inability to protect consumer security, regulate data brokers, or pass even a baseline privacy law was going to have increasingly deadly consequences. Endless signs have been there; from stalkers abusing app and cell phone data to pursue their victims, to right wing extremists using data broker data to target vulnerable women seeking reproductive care.

Fast forward to this week, when court documents revealed that the killer of Minnesota representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, used data broker information to obtain their home addresses:

“The accused Minneapolis assassin allegedly used data brokers as a key part of his plot to track down and murder Democratic lawmakers,” Ron Wyden, the US senator from Oregon, tells WIRED. “Congress doesn’t need any more proof that people are being killed based on data for sale to anyone with a credit card. Every single American’s safety is at risk until Congress cracks down on this sleazy industry.”

To be very clear, both of the lawmakers’ addresses were available via their websites, and this information was already widely available online. Home addresses, even of prominent lawmakers, are generally widely available through public records.

That said, in this case, the court docs indicate the killer obtained the information through a dozen of different name and address websites that collect their data from a massive international web of barely-regulated data brokers.

This isn’t even the worst case scenario for the U.S. and its pathetic privacy standards. This was only name and addresses; most data brokers collect detailed minutiae about your every daily habit, including your movement patterns down to the meter, your online browsing behaviors down to the second, your sexual preferences, your bad driving habits, your home electricity usage, and so much more.

There’s zero meaningful oversight of the sector. Generally, data brokers and companies try to hide behind claims that they “anonymize” this data. A meaningless term given study after study has shown that users in such datasets can be easily identified with just a little extra information and a few seconds of work.

There’s bottomless potential for far worse scandals and potential deaths. All because the United States has, time and time and time again, put making money over public safety and even national security. It’s a hard lesson we’re going to learn again and again and again until Congressional lawmakers shake off the corruption and figure out how to craft competent legislation. Or we replace them.

In other words, prepare to be waiting a while.

After capturing national headlines on Friday for her response of, “Well, we all are going to die,” to an Iowan worried cuts to Medicaid in the Republican budget bill will cause untimely death, Sen. Joni Ernst decided to respond to critics of her dismissive response by mocking them in a passive-aggressive video posted as two Instagram stories on Saturday. 

“Hello, everyone, I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for a statement that I made yesterday at my town hall,” Ernst says directly to the camera. The senator is outdoors, and gravestones can be seen in the background. “See, I was in the process of answering a question that had been asked by an audience member, when a woman who is extremely distraught screamed out from the back corner of the auditorium, “People are going to die.” And I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium that yes, we are all going to perish from this earth.”

“So, I apologize. And I’m really, really glad that I didn’t have to bring up the subject of the Tooth Fairy as well. But for those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”

Against all odds, Joni Ernst has made it worse

— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards.bsky.social) 2025-05-31T20:53:05.741Z

Ernst also posted a second, slightly shorter version of the video, with onscreen text, a musical soundtrack and ’90s-MTV-style cutaways to her saying, “We all are going to die” onstage at her Butler County town hall on Friday. This version omits the line about wanting to “sincerely apologize,” but otherwise follows the text of the longer version, ending with Ernst’s call to “embrace” Jesus. 

Holy airball…

— Zach Wahls (@zachwahls.bsky.social) 2025-05-31T22:47:32.986Z

The senator only posted these videos as Instagram stories, which Instagram automatically deletes after 24 hours. Ernst didn’t post the videos on either of her two Twitter/X feeds, or on her Facebook pages, where they would have reached a wider audience and would have remained until she removed them. 

Ernst did appear to be herself at the town hall on Friday, as members of the audience questioned her about her support for President Trump’s planned drastic cuts to funding for domestic programs and the ongoing and seemingly ill-informed and arbitrary cuts to federal agencies by DOGE. (Ernst is a founding member of the Senate DOGE Caucus, which promotes the Musk-founded pseudo-agency’s work.)  The Iowans gathered in the auditorium at Arlington-Parkersburg High School pushed back against Ernst’s statements, sometimes shouting and booing. 

Among the statements that drew pushback from the crowd was Ernst’s defense of  Medicaid cuts in the budget bill that the House passed two weeks ago. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the budget bill passed by House Republicans two weeks ago will end Medicaid coverage for 8.7 million people and lead an additional 7.6 million Americans to go without health insurance over the next 10 years. Using the CBO analysis, the Kaiser Family Foundation, a leading research center on healthcare issues, estimates Iowa will lose up to $8 billion in federal Medicaid funds over the same 10-year period, and see a decrease in Medicaid enrollment with as many as 112,000 fewer Iowans enrolled in the program by 2034 than would be without the eligibility changes in the bill. 

Ernst defends her support of the Medicaid cuts with the talking points other congressional Republicans and the Trump administration are using, claiming they aren’t actually cuts, just reforms to eliminate waste and to remove people unworthy of receiving Medicaid. 

The senator was telling the crowd in the auditorium that the cuts aren’t cuts, just “corrections of overpayments and people who have not been eligible,” and suggested that people who oppose the cuts are actually in favor of “illegals receiving Medicaid benefits.” That’s when a woman in the audience shouted, “People will die.”

“People are not…” Ernst began in reply, before dismissing the comment with, “Well, we all are going to die.” 

As audience members shouted in disagreement, Ernst continued in the tone of an exasperated teacher lecturing unruly students. 

“What you don’t want to do is listen to me when I say that we are going to focus on those that are most vulnerable. Those that meet the eligibility requirements for Medicaid, we will protect. We will protect them. Medicaid is extremely important here in the state of Iowa. If you don’t want to listen, that’s fine.”

On Sunday, Amie Rivers of Iowa Stating Line posted a statement from India May, the person who shouted the comment on Friday. 

“I’m a mom, Library Director, Registered Nurse, and county death investigator,” May wrote. “At Senator Joni Ernst’s recent town hall I live-streamed every word, listening as real fears about food insecurity and lost health care were waved away again and again.”

A friend showed May the video Ernst posted Saturday (the longer version, because May referenced the “distraught woman” comment). 

“It rang hollow and repeated the same gaslighting aimed at her MAGA base,” she said. 

May, who is a progressive Democrat running for the Iowa House in District 58, said she intends to “keep emailing [Ernst] daily with my concerns.” 

UPDATE: just heard from India May with Insufferable Wenches of Iowa says she's the woman who said "people will die," prompting Ernst's response. And May is also running for Iowa legislature. mayforiowa.com

— Amie Rivers (@amierivers.bsky.social) 2025-06-01T16:40:24.727Z

Aside from mocking people who found her “Well, we all are going to die” response callous on Instagram, Ernst has only mentioned the town hall once so far on social media. In a tweet posted Friday on her official Senate X account, Iowa’s junior senator said, “Thanks folks for coming out to my town hall in Parkersburg today! I always enjoy hearing from constituents and sharing my work to cut government red tape for you.”

Thanks folks for coming out to my town hall in Parkersburg today!

I always enjoy hearing from constituents and sharing my work to cut government red tape for you. pic.twitter.com/Roy06rQVvL

— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) May 30, 2025

The No Kings rallies held in more than 1,400 cities across the country on Saturday were meant to have a festive atmosphere, as millions gathered nationwide to protest the actions of the Trump administration. Organizers of the Iowa City suggested people wear costumes, as did organizers in some other cities. But the rally in downtown Iowa City started on a somber note, as did many other rallies around the country.

As the rally began, state Sen. Janice Weiner asked the people gathered in the 100 block of Iowa Avenue to observe a moment of silence in response to “a horrendous act of violence occurred earlier today in Minneapolis.”

State Rep. Melissa Hortman, a former speaker of the Minnesota House, and her husband had been shot dead in their home, and a few miles away, state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were shot and wounded in their home. Details about the shootings were only starting to be made public on Saturday morning, but what was known that the shooter was someone dressed as a police officer, who was apparently targeting Democratic lawmakers, like Hortman and Hoffman. Papers found in the gunman’s SUV — which was marked like a police vehicle — indicated he planned to shoot other Democrats, as well as abortion providers and was possibly going to attack the No Kings rally in Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul.

Law enforcement officials in Minnesota advised people to stay away from the rally in St. Paul, but thousands attended and speakers declared they would not be intimidated by the murderous acts of political violence that had occurred nearby. 

More information was made public on Saturday. Police identified the shooter in both attacks as Vance Boetler, a 57-year-old former convenience store manager, who owns a private security company that apparently has no clients. Boetler belongs to a fringe Christian nationalist sect and, according to friends, is a committed Trump supporter. At a news conference on Sunday, the director of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said the lists of potential targets found in Boetler’s car went beyond Minnesota, and included lawmakers in Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska and Wisconsin. Boetler was apprehended on Sunday following the largest manhunt in Minnesota history. 

News of shootings did not appear to stop people from going to their local No Kings rallies. Massive crowds filled streets and parks at rallies around the country. The total number of attendees was estimated at more than 4 million by a group of data journalists who collected crowd estimates. In Iowa, there were No Kings rallies and marches in more than 30 cities. The Des Moines Register reported an estimated crowd size of more than 7,000 for the rally at the Iowa State Capitol. KCRG reported thousands gathered for the rally in downtown Cedar Rapids. Maquoketa had more than 200 people at its rally, and across the Mississippi, 1,000 people attended a Quad Cities rally in Rock Island. In Iowa City, over 2,000 filled the street. 

These numbers stood in stark contrast to the turnout for the military parade staged by the Trump administration held in Washington D.C. on Saturday, ostensibly to mark the 250th anniversary of the creation of U.S. Army, but also to mark President Trump’s 79th birthday. Attendance for the parade — which cost taxpayers an estimated $45 million, and was co-sponsored by such Trump-friendly companies as Coinbase, Oracle and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) — was far below what had been anticipated, and some who did attend were unimpressed by what they saw. 

“Some in the crowd filed out as the parade continued, the number of onlookers thinning before the president gave his remarks,” the Washington Post reported. “Even bleacher seating for VIP guests, positioned directly across from a riser for news cameras, remained half-empty throughout the program.”

After the moment of silence, the rally in Iowa City began to regain momentum with music and speakers. Many in the crowd were carrying signs, most following the theme “No Kings,” others addressed specific policy issues, such as the Posse Comitatus Act. The act, passed in 1878, prohibits the use of the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement, except in cases of rebellion and insurrection or to enforce federal civil rights law. The act has gained new relevance in recent weeks as President Trump dispatched U.S. Marines to Los Angeles to support his ICE-led deportation raids in the city. 

Dr. Ali Hanson, a physician and neuroscientist, told the crowd it’s important not to allow the extreme actions of the Trump administration to become a “new normal.” Doing so will not only entrench what many federal courts have so far found to be illegal power-grabs by the administration, but will also allow the president and his allies to go even further in eroding democratic norms and laws protecting civil rights. 

“At what point do we draw the line?” Hanson asked. “We should ask these questions to the Board of Regents of Iowa, first of all, and a lot of other people. When are we going to stand up and actually fight the fuck back?”

Marie Krebs of the Great Plains Action Society, an advocacy and rights group led by Indigenous America, cautioned people against repeat the trope “this is not America” when talking about Trump’s actions. 

“I want you to know that for some of us, this is America,” she told the crowd. “This is the America that we have known for hundreds of years.”

Krebs said what people seeing unfolding across the country grows natural out of America’s history of slavery, genocide against Indigenous people, Jim Crow and anti-LGBTQ laws. 

“Unfortunately what’s happening today is as American as apple pie.”

But all that is only possible because the “wealthy know how to play us,” Krebs said. “If we’re divided, we’re weak. They have control.”

“If you want this to stop, really stop, it has to stop for everyone,” Krebs continued, “it has to stop in our hearts, in our minds, our spirits. When things go better for you, look around, make sure you didn’t leave others behind. That is fixing the root of what you are witnessing today.”

“Stop for everyone” includes more than just Americans, as Rima Afifi of Iowans for Palestine explained when she spoke. Afii began by discussion the genocidal killings of Palestinians in Gaza that have occurred since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas. 

“Over 55,000 people have been killed by Israel,” she said. “Of these deaths, over 15,600 are children.”

Because such large numbers can often obscure the true impact of events, Afifi tried to make the number of children killed vivid with a comparison familiar to Iowa Citians. 

“The Iowa City school district serves about 14,800 children. That scale of dead children means that all of our schools would be empty. The halls of Lincoln Elementary School would be lifeless, North Central Middle School would be silent, West High School wouldn’t have a single student.”

For anyone wonder why a Palestinian was speaking at the No Kings rally, Afifi explained, “Palestine is intertwined with Indigenous liberation, with Black liberation, with queer and trans liberation, with the fight for reproductive, disability and environmental justice. It’s connected with access to housing and food and jobs. As one activist stated, and I quote, ‘To ignore Palestinian freedom is to ignore the roots of shared oppression.’ To claim justice in one place, while denying it in another, is not justice at all.’” 

Johnson County Supervisor Mandi Remington focused on everyday impact of the Trump administration’s cuts to the social safety net. 

“Far too many of us know what it’s like to do mental math at the grocery store trying to figure out how we’re going to put food on the table and keep the lights on. Snap and Medicaid helped save my life and my children’s,” Remington said. “They provided me the stability I needed to build a career and eventually enter public service. Now those programs are under threat, while working families struggle to afford the basics, and we’re being forced to pay for a $45 million parade to flatter the ego of a narcissistic billionaire who already thinks he’s a king.”

Remington said the country had reached “a tipping point.”

“They’re hoping that we’re either going to give up or turn on each other. And that isn’t governance. These attacks are part of a much broader agenda that seeks to control who we can be, what we can say and what we can do with our own bodies, and we’ve seen it before. These patterns — dehumanizing entire groups, banning books, rolling back rights, glorifying the military while defunding public programs — are not new. They are textbook authoritarian tactics that don’t end well, unless we stop it as quickly as we can.” 

“That’s why we’re not going to go anywhere.” 

It was already hot and humid when the rally began in Iowa City at 11 a.m., and the temperature increased as more than a dozen speakers addressed the crowd. The speeches had to be stopped on three occasions, because it was necessary to call for medics to treat a member of the crowd who collapsed. By the time a march through downtown kicked off at the end of the rally, many had left. Still, hundreds marched, appearing resolute and joyful, as did marchers in other cities around Iowa. That’s something that could not be said of the images of the crowd attending Trump’s military parade.

The Iowa House of Representatives Tuesday secured the necessary two-thirds majority on a petition calling for a special session to override the governor’s veto of a bill pertaining to eminent domain and carbon sequestration pipelines. 

Seventy representatives signed the petition in favor of returning to the State Capitol to override the veto on HF 639, but two-thirds of the Senate will also have to sign on for a special session to be called. 

House Speaker Pat Grassley called for the petition immediately following Gov. Kim Reynolds’ veto of HF 639, which would have restricted the use of eminent domain for carbon sequestration pipelines and added a slew of additional requirements for pipelines and regulators. 

“This veto was a major setback for Iowa landowners and the tireless efforts of the House to safeguard property rights,” Grassley said in a press release Tuesday. “With 70 members of the House standing united, we’ve met the constitutional threshold to move forward. We now call on our colleagues in the Senate to join us by securing the necessary signatures so we can convene a special session, override this veto, and deliver the protections Iowa landowners deserve against eminent domain for private gain.”

Members of the House have pushed forward similar bills over the past several years. The 2025 session was the first time the Senate took up the issue, but only after a group of 12 Republican senators said they would not vote on budget bills until HF 639 was debated.

The bill is tied to opposition of the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline which was granted a permit, and the right of eminent domain, by the Iowa Utilities Commission in June 2024. Landowners opposed to the pipeline feel the privately owned project should not have the power of condemnation and fear the impact of the pipeline on their land. 

The pipeline would connect to biorefineries and transport captured carbon dioxide through the state and up to underground storage in North Dakota. This would give ethanol facilities and corn farmers access to the ultra-low carbon fuel market, which industry leaders say is needed to fuel the agricultural economy in the state. 

The debate on the issue, and HF 639 in particular, has created rifts within the  Republican Party of Iowa, with those in favor of the bill alleging their colleagues, including Reynolds, abandoned GOP values.

Those against the bill said it reached beyond its intended targets and would have caused unintended consequences to agricultural and energy infrastructure in Iowa. 

A press release from Iowa House Republicans about the petition said Reynolds’ veto denied “critical protections” against eminent domain, was an “undermining” of years of legislative efforts and represented a “significant setback” for those who have fought for “fair treatment” in carbon capture projects. 

House Republicans also urged the Senate to “act swiftly” to meet the petition requirements to call a special session. 

Senate Republican leadership did not respond to requests for comment on the latest news, but Sen. Jack Whitver, R-Grimes, said last week the majority of his caucus would “not be interested” in pursuing a special session override. 

Sen. Kevin Alons, R-Salix, who was one of the 12 holdouts on the Senate floor for debate on the bill, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Of the 30 representatives who did not sign the petition, 10 were Republicans and 20 were Democrats.

Cami Koons covers agriculture and the environment for Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this story first appeared.

Dr. Fiona Havers is influential among researchers who study immunizations. The wholesale dismissal of the agency’s scientific advisers crossed the line, she said.

In 1969, a tiny ceramic wafer containing artwork by Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and others was reportedly smuggled aboard Apollo 12. The Moon Museum is a tiny ceramic wafer (less than an inch in size) containing artwork by six prominent artists of the 1960s:

The story behind this secret art mission is just as compelling as the art itself. — Read the rest

The post The tiny, secret art museum we sent to the moon — and how it got there appeared first on Boing Boing.