The Status Sunday Newsletter is Here!

Introducing our new weekly newsletter covering what the corporate media covers up...on Sundays.

Happy Sunday! Today we’re introducing the Status Coup Sunday newsletter (and also launching our weekly Status Sunday livestream/membership drive at 1 p.m. est). With our team growing, we’ll be able to give you more original Status Coup content and reporting weekly—set to hit your inbox every Sunday morning (barring when we’re on-the-ground reporting).

The Status Sunday newsletter will be a mix of underreported stories the corporate media largely ignores, curated and reported by us, in addition to a round-up of key moments from our ON-THE-GROUND reporting (at the bottom of the newsletter). As time allows, we’ll also add our own additional original reporting and commentary. Let us know what you like, or don’t like, about this newsletter by leaving a comment.

As the leading INDEPENDENT outlet consistently doing ON-THE-GROUND reporting, we rely on viewers to support us as paying members to fund this reporting. Please support us for as low as 16 cents a day ($5 bucks a month). Without further ado, onto the news!

1. We Fixed It! (Just Kidding.) EPA Quietly Ends Flint Water Emergency — Residents Call B.S.

In a move that reeks more of political convenience than public health victory, the EPA — now run by Trump loyalist Lee Zeldin — has officially declared Flint’s water crisis over. On May 26, the agency ended its emergency Safe Drinking Water Act order, effectively washing its hands of the disaster that’s poisoned a city for over a decade. But residents aren’t buying the spin, and neither are we. As Status Coup's Jordan Chariton, who has been reporting on the Flint water crisis and cover-up for nearly a decade, exposed a tangled web of cover-ups by local, state, and federal agencies—including the EPA itself. He even wrote an award-winning book, “We the Poisoned,” which you can get here! His relentless, on-the-ground journalism has shown that the government didn’t solve Flint’s water crisis…they buried it. And now, with Trump’s EPA actively gutting environmental oversight and regulations, this sudden declaration of victory is more of a PR stunt than public service.

Don’t take it from us. Just ask the people of Flint. In local Facebook posts, residents responded to the EPA’s “mission accomplished” announcement with outrage and disbelief. “I can't drink bathe or cook in this water...have black stuff in it like charcoal…smells like shii(t) water every time I turn on my faucet,” one resident wrote. Another responded: “This water is not safe, and 12 news you need to stop acting like a PR firm.” Another asked the obvious: “Is this because the EPA has been practically dismantled?” Let’s be clear: Flint’s water still isn’t safe and this situation is still a CRISIS.

• The water is still toxic in many parts of the city.

• Cancer is surging as a result of residents drinking poisoned water

• All of the corrosive water pipes damaged by toxic water have not been replaced (11 years later),

• Residents have still not yet received a dime from an insufficient financial settlement

• Not one politician responsible for poisoning Flint has been convicted or sent to prison (and none likely all)

This isn’t success, it’s abandonment. And while mainstream media may parrot the EPA’s press release, Status Coup will stay on this story, on-the-ground with the people of Flint, because justice isn’t declared by bureaucrats — it’s earned, and Flint still hasn’t gotten it.

2. GOP Guts California's Clean Air Powers

Making a stunning show of procedural cynicism, Senate Republicans, bankrolled and purchased by fossil fuel and auto industry cash, invoked the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a 1996 law that allows Congress to overturn recently finalized federal rules, to gut California’s authority to set its own clean air standards. Ignoring legal experts, the Senate parliamentarian, the Government Accountability Office, and decades of precedent, Republicans, dutifully joined by Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin, misapplied the CRA to target California’s EPA waivers for vehicle emissions—not only revoking them but also blocking the agency from issuing similar waivers in the future without an act of Congress. The move isn’t just about harmful emissions, it’s about consolidating corporate power and defanging environmental resistance.

As Kate Aronoff of The New Republic warns, if obscure, legally dubious tactics like this become the norm, virtually any administrative action — on vaccines, media, or civil rights — could be up for repeal by simple majority. California’s smoggy skies may only be the start of what’s coming.

WATCH MY REPORT ON THIS BELOW.

3. Woman Sues Big Oil Over Mother’s Death in Deadly Heatwave

Misti Leon is suing seven oil and gas giants for the wrongful death of her mother, Juliana “Julie” Leon, who died from a heatstroke during the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome. The lawsuit claims her death was a predictable consequence of decades of fossil fuel industry deception, fueling the climate crisis while prioritizing profits over public safety.

Juliana Leon, 65, died alone in her car amid unprecedented 108-degree heat — a victim not of a freak event, but of a system that enables corporate destruction. In recent years, organizations like Public Citizen have called to classify these deaths as homicides. And with the climate collapse escalating in ever more tangible ways, so does the call for accountability — and this lawsuit, spurred by the pain and suffering of the Leon family, could mark a turning point in holding Big Oil criminally responsible.

4. The NY (C)rimes Welcomes its AI Overlords

The New York Times just cut a deal with Amazon to let the tech giant use its work to train their AI. Notably, the Times is currently suing another Big Tech company, OpenAI, for billions for doing exactly what they’ve just given Amazon permission to do. Despite the new deal, and lawsuit, the New York Times has already lost. Silicon Valley’s AI systems have been gobbling up journalism without permission, or pay, and now legacy outlets are scrambling to make off with some sort of compensation while they still can. This is a deeply cynical move by The New York Times, which tells us pretty clearly that they view the coming AI-maggaden as an inevitably that they’ll choose to submit too.

For more on our coverage of AI—and just how disastrous the AI apocalypse will be for working people— check out one of Jordan’s latest stories: “The Looming Economic BOMB The Elites Want You To Look Away From.”

5. Supreme Court Clears Path for Trump to Gut Labor Board, Workers Left Defenseless

The Supreme Court just handed Trump a major win, straight from the playbook of authoritarians, by rubber stamping his firing of Gwynne Wilcox, board member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), in January, while her wrongful termination case is still making its way through the courts. Despite a lower court ruling Trump’s move illegal, the Supreme Court’s stay order leaves the labor board paralyzed with only two of five seats filled.

The NLRB is far from perfect, but it's one of the last institutional tools—insufficient as it may be—standing between labor and corporate union busters. That’s why one of Trump’s first orders of business was to wage war on it. With this ruling, the Court has sent a chilling message, reinforcing everything we’ve seen from this administration since January: the executive branch can dismantle independent agencies at will — and this time, they’re imperiling decades of labor protections.

6. GENIUS Act — yes, it’s really called that— Hands Big Tech the Keys to the U.S. Financial System

The Senate is barreling toward passing the GENIUS Act (standing for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins) — a dystopian crypto bill that isn’t about “innovation” as much as it about handing Big Tech and billionaires like Elon Musk the keys to the kingdom to print their own cryptocurrency. As Luke Goldstein writes for The Lever, this law would let tech giants unleash their own stablecoins with little oversight and even fewer protections for consumers (what could go wrong?!?!) Worse, the bill strips power from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), handing Big Tech a free pass to run financial networks without regulation or transparency. Meanwhile, corporate lobbyists and crypto-funded politicians are cashing in, pushing this bill through with bipartisan “compromise” while pretending to care about consumer safety.

As Goldstein notes, what’s really at stake here is the erosion of a 200-year-old legal “firewall” separating banking from commerce. Just like repealing Glass-Steagall in 1999 made way for the 2008 financial crash, the GENIUS Act threatens to destabilize the entire financial system by mixing Big Tech’s unchecked power with banking. If this bill passes, we’re looking at a future where tech monopolies don’t just control our data and speech, but our money — and the fees and risks that come with it. It’s a corporate takeover of finance disguised as innovation, and as always, working people will pay the price.

7. EPA Sides With Big Oil, Strips States and Tribes of Power to Block Pipelines

Always a good friend to his buddies in Big Oil, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin (who seems incapable of putting out an EPA announcement without finding a way to mention himself) is cracking down on states and Native American tribes trying to use the Clean Water Act to defend their land and water from destructive energy projects. The EPA’s new memo warns local governments not to “leverage” environmental law to block oil and gas pipelines pushed by the Trump administration — effectively silencing climate and clean water objections in the name of "economic growth." By narrowing how states can review energy projects for water quality impacts, the EPA is gutting local power to resist Big Oil’s toxic agenda. It’s yet another power grab to fast-track dirty energy projects while sidelining Indigenous and environmental voices standing in the way of corporate profit.

WATCH MY RECENT REPORT ON TRUMP’S RENEWED ASSAULT ON NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES:

8. Hochul Betrays Climate Promises, Cuts Dirty Deal to Revive Defeated Pipeline

New York Governor Kathy Hochul could be caving to Donald Trump and fossil fuel interests by signaling potential support for reviving the Constitution Pipeline, a dirty energy project New Yorkers already defeated once. The pipeline, proposed by Williams Corporation, was canceled in 2020 after New York denied a key water-quality permit under the Clean Water Act, citing threats to water resources. The Wall Street Journal reports, Williams Corporation is “preparing to file permitting paperwork with federal energy regulators to move forward with the projects.” Yes, projects — there is another pipeline, the Northeast Supply Enhancement Pipeline.

As Status Coup is never shy to mention, and I have written before, Democrats like to talk a big game on climate while green lighting the very projects that have pushed us off the cliff into a climate inferno. If Hochul follows through, this won’t just be merely a betrayal of New Yorkers and, yet another, massive threat to our health and our planet. It will be a hand-delivered victory to those guilty parties responsible for the climate collapse — Big Oil and its servile enablers in office, who would sell off our collective present and futures for another dirty bite of the Big Apple.

9. Leonard Peltier Calls to Rename the American Indian Movement

Indigenous activist, Leonard Peltier— who was finally released from prison after 50 years of wrongful imprisonment—has a message for the direction he wants the indigenous rights and land back movement to go. In a recent interview, Peltier called to change the name of the American Indian Movement (AIM) to become the American Indigenous Movement. Peltier believes the new name for AIM will more accurately reflect who Native Americans are and what their movement seeks to liberate itself from.

In an interview with Mike Forcia of AIM Twin Cities, Peltier said:

“We are not Indians. We are not from India. What I would like to do, and I’ve thought about it for a number of years now, laying in a cell, that we should change our name to what we really are — the American Indigenous Movement. It’s not much, we’ll still be AIM, but we’re not Indians. So, I don’t think we should be calling ourselves that. That’s actually agreeing with the oppressor that we are something that we’re not. I think it’s time that we start acting like we’re not. We’re not Indians.”

10. Firefighters in LA Wildfires Face Similar Health Effects as 9/11 First Responders

Firefighters who battled the January 2025 Eaton and Palisades wildfires in Los Angeles are now showing blood lead levels five times higher than those fighting traditional forest fires, raising alarm among researchers that the health risks could rival those faced by 9/11 first responders. According to the LA Fire Health Study — a joint effort by Harvard, UCLA, UC Davis, and UT Austin — the fires released a toxic mix of lead, mercury, volatile organic compounds, and fine particulate matter, with pollutants detected miles away from the burn sites.

As Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times have reported, these compounds are linked to long-term respiratory, neurological, and cardiovascular harm. What’s more is these compounds, in the form of carcinogens like benzene and formaldehyde, continue to seep from smoldering debris, further endangering public health. Our synthetic-built environment, constructed by profit-seeking vultures, has turned every burning home or warehouse into a chemical weapon — worsening fossil-fueled climate disasters. While officials issue empty reassurances, researchers are advising residents to wear protective gear inside their own homes, a grim testament to a system that treats environmental poisoning as the cost of doing business.

Status Coup ON-THE-GROUND Reporting

Every week, we’ll spotlight what corporate media won’t: our on-the-ground reporting from the front lines of protest, resistance, and working-class struggle. While corporate outlets stay glued to press briefings and recycled narratives, we’re in the streets — documenting what’s really happening and handing the mic to the people forced to fight back. Status Coup doesn’t parachute in when a story trends — we show up, week after week, where power is being challenged and lives are on the line.

Here’s some of what we’ve seen and captured lately:

1. The intrepid Jon Farina filmed yet another tense scene outside immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, where nearly two dozen plainclothes ICE agents were waiting in the lobby. Many immigrants are required to attend routine check-ins with immigration at this location. Protesters organized at the court in response to the recent detention of a 20-year-old Bronx public school student identified only by his first name, Dylan, who was taken during what should have been a routine check-in. The standoff between DHS, NYPD, and protesters escalated into the night after DHS agents rammed demonstrators with metal barricades and unloaded pepper spray without warning. NYPD followed up with at least twenty arrests.

2. At Columbia University’s graduation ceremony, Ashley Bishop and Jon Farina were on-the-ground as alumni and students protested the school’s crackdown on free speech and Pro-Palestine student activists. Columbia university, now a symbol of elite censorship of free speech and violent repression of the student protest movement, became the stage for a powerful moment as around a dozen Columbia alumni burned their diplomas across the street, declaring they refused to be complicit in Columbia’s cowardice. And it wasn’t just alumni, student protestors also gathered, and became the target of NYPD who surveilled the protest, instigating chaos and violence.

3. During Bernie Sanders’ “Fight the Oligarchy” tour in Pennsylvania, Ashley and Jon spoke with protesters penned up across the street. The protesters expressed immense frustration with Bernie and the feeling that he has failed to meaningfully oppose Israel’s genocide of Palestine. (Though, in March, Bernie introduced legislation aiming to block over $8.8 billion in U.S. arms sales to Israel, citing human rights abuses in Gaza, like blocking aid.) Listen to what they had to say:

And that is only a small fraction of the ON-THE-GROUND reporting we’ve done lately. You can find more here.

And with that, we’ll call to a close the inaugural Status Coup Sunday Newsletter! Thanks again for spending your Sunday morning with us. And remember, this is not the last you’ll hear from us today: Status Sunday airs at 1 p.m. EST today and we hope to see you there!

-Ashley