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Three new companies face Josh Hawley’s investigation into AI surveillance and vehicle tracking

2026-09-03T12:35:32-04:00 / Fox News

Motorola Solutions, Verkada and Axon Enterprise received letters demanding answers on data retention and privacy safeguards

By Preston Mizell Fox News

Published September 3, 2026 12:35pm EDT

Flock cameras raise privacy concerns after alleged misuse

‘Outnumbered’ debates privacy concerns surrounding Flock surveillance cameras after allegations of misuse by law enforcement, while weighing the technology’s role in solving crimes, locating missing people and protecting public safety.

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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is expanding his investigation into alleged privacy violations from Flock Safety cameras to three additional companies amid concerns about the handling of images and data generated by AI-backed surveillance cameras.

Hawley put Motorola Solutions Inc., Verkada Inc. and Axon Enterprise Inc. on notice in a series of letters that the lawmaker sent on Wednesday.

“On August 26th, I wrote to your competitor Flock Safety to express my concerns regarding the size and pervasiveness of its network and demanding answers as to reports of abuse and costly errors from its technology,” Hawley’s letter to the three companies reads. “However, Flock does not stand alone in this industry; you and others are building large camera networks, assisted by artificial intelligence, that intrude on the privacy of all Americans.”

HAWLEY RIPS FLOCK’S SPRAWLING SURVEILLANCE WEB AS TEXAS CITIES CUT CAMERAS OVER PRIVACY AND DATA FEARS

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., talks with reporters in the U.S. Capitol during votes related to the government shutdown on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Hawley, who serves as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, has been vocal about his concerns that Flock Safety cameras undermine personal privacy with an AI-powered system that tracks the movements of Americans.

“Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school or go to church,” Hawley said in a post on X last week. “I’m investigating Flock cameras to determine WHO has access to hundreds of millions of Americans’ data – and what they’re doing with it.”

POWERFUL CRIME-FIGHTING SURVEILLANCE GROWTH SPURS LAWMAKERS TO ISSUE WARNING: ‘ORWELLIAN’

Hawley asked each of the companies to explain how broadly customers can search vehicle data, how long the company retains license plate information, how many confirmed cases of misuse have occurred since 2021 and what safeguards are in place to ensure law enforcement officers provide legitimate justifications before conducting searches.

A pigeon perches on a Flock Safety camera, mounted high on a traffic signal pole at the intersection of Chapman Avenue and Harbor Boulevard in Garden Grove, Calif. on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026.(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

“We received the letter and have reached out to Senator Hawley’s office to discuss his requests,” an Axon spokesperson said. “We welcome the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to safety and responsible innovation.”

A number of politicians have taken action against AI-powered cameras, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordering the removal of all license plate reader cameras from Florida state roads and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordering all state agencies to stop spending state money on Flock Safety cameras.

FLOCK SURVEILLANCE SPREADS ACROSS THE SOUTH AS RED-STATE LAWMAKERS SEEK TO AX ‘1984’-STYLE TRACKING TOOLS

Flock Safety cameras use artificial intelligence to automatically track and identify vehicles and license plates for local law enforcement use. Nationwide concern has grown about whether the AI-backed system should be allowed to track the movement of vehicles without a warrant or the consent of drivers.

About 120,000 Flock Safety cameras operate in every state except Alaska.

Last week, Hawley also sent a letter to Flock Safety, requesting similar information from the company.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Flock Safety said the company would comply with the investigation.

FLOCK SAFETY CEO CALLS FOR NATIONAL ‘COMPROMISE’ AMID CAMERA SABOTAGE AND PUBLIC REVOLT

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott moved to cut off state-agency funding for Flock cameras as communities across the state reconsider their use of the technology.(Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

“We look forward to working with Senator Hawley and the Subcommittee to provide additional context about how our technology works, the safeguards built into our platform and how law enforcement agencies use Flock to solve crime and find missing people,” Flock Safety spokesperson Paris Lewbel said.

INSIDE THE FAR-LEFT’S ANTI-DATA CENTER PUSH AND WHAT EXPERTS SAY IS DRIVING IT: ‘PLAYBOOK WE’VE SEEN BEFORE’

The growing backlash against Flock cameras illustrates an unusual convergence: Republicans and far-left activists are arriving at the same target from sharply different ideological directions. While GOP lawmakers are focused on privacy, government overreach and protecting Americans from warrantless tracking, socialist and communist organizers have folded the cameras into a broader campaign against artificial intelligence, policing, immigration enforcement, the construction of data centers and the demonization of the United States as a “police state” and “AI surveillance state.”

Over the past year, far-left organizations within a network funded by pro-China, Shanghai-based tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham have built vocal community campaigns against the Flock Safety cameras, while also targeting the construction of data centers. The GOP, including President Donald Trump and administration officials, have been leading voices of support for the continued construction of data centers.

How funding from Marxist tycoon Neville Roy Singham flows to organizations https://www.foxnews.com/video/6399660138112

In May, the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Denver chapter partnered with Indivisible and the far-left Sunrise Movement and promoted a forum examining the “connections between mass surveillance and data centers and how BOTH only serve the needs of billionaires and not our communities.”

MARXIST ORGANIZER LEADS CAMPAIGN AGAINST VIRGINIA AI DATA CENTER AS FOREIGN INFLUENCE CONCERNS MOUNT

By July 25, in Tucson, Ariz., the local Party for Socialism and Liberation chapter joined “deFLOCK Tucson” and the “No Desert Data Center Coalition” for an event called “It’s ALL Connected” at the “Global Justice Center” on E. 26th Street.

The promotional material asked what mass surveillance, data centers and electric power had in common. The answer: “IT’S ALL CONNECTED.”

In a new report, “The Compute War at Home,” commissioned by Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, the authors note that “money, media, organizing capacity and campaign objectives converge in the same ecosystem.”

David Chung, organizing director at The People’s Forum, prepares for an anti-war demonstration in Union Square in New York City, left. Tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham attends The Red Party in New York City on Feb. 14, 2018, right.(Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital; Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images)

“Issue pairings rarely multiply fourteen-fold in a matter of weeks without a catalyst, particularly when the surge begins immediately after organizers start promoting the connection,” the report states.

Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News Digital covering breaking news.

Florida bans highway license-plate readers as backlash over surveillance spreads

2026-09-03 18:41:08 UTC / Reuters

By Helen Coster

September 3, 2026 6:41 PM UTC Updated 1 hour ago

A sign describes a Flock camera as a 24/7 license plate reader near a retail area in Sun Valley, Texas, U.S. July 31, 2026. REUTERS/Kaylee Greenlee Purchase Licensing Rights

NEW YORK, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Florida has banned local police from placing cameras that read license plates on its state highways in response to growing divisions over law enforcement’s use of technology ​supplied by Flock Safety and others to track vehicles in many parts of ​the U.S.

Florida’s Department of Transportation said it would revoke previous permits for the cameras and no longer issue new permits within its jurisdiction.

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“The recent exponential increase in deployments along our roadways, coupled with concerning reports of misuse, ​data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes merit immediate action to preserve Floridians’ sovereignty and ​quality of life,” it said in a memo issued earlier this week.

The memo ⁠followed remarks from Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who last week said the use of ​automated license plate readers has “gotten out of control.”

Another Republican governor, Greg Abbott of Texas, last week ​ordered state agencies to pause funding for Flock cameras.

A Flock Safety spokesperson said in a statement that Flock’s technology helps solve crimes in Florida and throughout the country.

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“Rather than banning a critical public safety tool, we support ​thoughtful legislation and strong privacy, transparency, and accountability guard rails that ensure technology is used responsibly ​while preserving law enforcement’s ability to use effective tools to keep people safe,” the statement said.

The move by ‌Florida ⁠comes amid growing public backlash over cameras provided by the Atlanta-based company. Across 49 states, Flock’s network of around 120,000 AI-powered cameras, affixed to streets and highways, automatically read license plates and record vehicles as they pass.

They have been billed as a security tool that allows law enforcement ​to quickly identify and ​catch criminals, but ⁠have been under fire for misuse by police departments and criticized for violating citizens’ privacy.

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Together with AI data centers, Flock cameras have emerged as a ​flashpoint in this year’s midterm elections, with candidates increasingly attacking their opponents ​by tying ⁠them to the technology.

Americans are divided on whether Flock cameras are a good idea, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Monday. Some 38% of the country supports the use of Flock ⁠cameras in ​their community, compared to 47% who oppose their use.

Support ​was strongest among self-identified Republicans, with 54% of the party in favor of Flock cameras, while the same share of ​Democrats was against them.

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Reporting by Helen Coster in New York; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Alistair Bell

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

North Carolina may be Democrats’ best chance to flip a Senate seat. So why is no one talking about it?

1:28 PM EDT, Thu September 3, 2026 / CNN

North Carolina may be Democrats’ best chance to flip a Senate seat. So why is no one talking about it?

Inside Politics

Phil Mattingly and the “Inside Politics” panel discuss the North Carolina Senate race between former Gov. Roy Cooper and former RNC Chair Michael Whatley. Though President Trump won the state three times, Kristen Holmes says many Republicans have “written off this race” given Cooper’s popularity and name ID. If the president invests money in the race, “that is going to be the greatest indication that they believe they can move the needle,” she says.

3:34 • Source: CNN

Trump administration reviving centuries-old prize law to try to claim Iranian oil tankers

2026-09-03T14:23:00-0400 / CBS News

By Jacob Rosen Justice Department Reporter
Jake Rosen is a reporter covering the Department of Justice. He was previously a campaign digital reporter covering President Trump’s 2024 campaign and also served as an associate producer for “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

Read Full Bio

Updated on: September 3, 2026 / 2:49 PM EDT / CBS News

The Justice Department is attempting to revive a centuries-old law to speed up efforts to claim Iranian oil tankers seized during the war with Iran, but maritime law experts say the plan could face hurdles.

The top federal prosecutor in southern Texas confirmed last month that his office is involved in the effort to revive the use of prize law, a specialized legal regime that has not been used regularly since the Spanish-American War. Now, the department plans to utilize the laws in arguments about whether ships and tankers captured at sea since the start of the Trump administration were taken legally.

“Our national security interests may require the United States military to seize vessels or cargo supporting the enemy during military conflict,” Aaron Reitz, the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Texas, said in a statement. “If that happens, our federal courts must be ready to adjudicate the disposition of these captured vessels and cargo.”

“Prize law is an ancient body of maritime law — already codified in statute but which we are now reviving — that sets the rules for how seized maritime property is condemned, returned, or disposed of,” Reitz continued.

The formal use of prize law, which first began in the early 17th century, would allow the administration to end-run civil asset forfeiture laws — which can often be bogged down in court — in favor of a streamlined process to force the handover of captured Iran-linked ships to the U.S. A judge overseeing the boat capture would have to rule that the U.S. met a specific standard to be awarded the ship’s prize.

File: U.S. forces board MT Davina in Indian Ocean, June 5, 2026. Video from INDOPACOM, via X.

Under current law, U.S. district courts have jurisdiction over prize law cases once vessels are seized by the military. The Justice Department and Pentagon would have to establish that a seized boat is carrying contraband goods, transporting enemy soldiers, operating under enemy control, using fake documents or attempting to circumvent a blockade.

If the department’s efforts survive legal challenges, the court could award the U.S. the prize of oil or other cargo aboard seized Iran-linked ships. The prize could then be sold, and funds would likely be transferred to the Treasury Department.

The plan to revive prize law was first reported by Bloomberg Law. It is the third time that the Trump administration has attempted to use a dormant or defunct mechanism to attempt to expedite the administration’s priorities. In July, the Justice Department attempted to use the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, created in 1996 and which had never been used before, to speed up deportations of suspected “alien terrorists.” Last year, the Trump administration deported Venezuelan migrants accused of belonging to the gang Tren de Aragua under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which had not been invoked since World War II.

But international and maritime law experts say the administration’s potential application of the centuries-old laws could backfire in the short term and the long term.

File: U.S. forces carried out a maritime interdiction and boarded the sanctioned stateless vessel MT DAVINA in the Indian Ocean, June 5, 2026, according to INDOPACOM. INDOPACOM / screengrab

Michael Sturley, a maritime law professor at the University of Texas School of Law, said that 1789 federal law gives district courts and judges in the U.S. jurisdiction over potential prize law cases, but the seized vessel would have to be physically moved to the district — in this case, potentially the port of Houston.

“You know, you go back to the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, prize courts were huge,” Sturley said. “Back when we didn’t have much of a navy, we sort of outsourced a lot of the functions that you would expect a navy to serve, and would issue letters of embark to private individuals, authorizing them to go out and harass enemy shipping. And the incentive for the private individuals was they got to keep what they killed.”

Sturley said in previous iterations, the prize would be split between the government, which commissioned the privateers, and the captains and crews who operated the boat that had seized the belligerent vessel — a ship belonging to a nation that was actively engaged in conflict with the United States.

Ian Ralby, a maritime law and security expert, says he doesn’t see “any problem with reviving the law of capture and prize.”

“We’ve already seen the revival of blockade. We’ve seen the revival of the law of contraband. So all of these, like naval warfare doctrines that were seemingly collecting dust on the shelf, are available and applicable,” said Ralby, the president of Auxilium Worldwide, a charitable nonprofit that in-part focuses on ocean governance.

But he believes the Trump administration’s attempt to apply prize law poses “some pretty significant domestic and international legal challenges,” specifically in the Middle East, and South America, where the Trump administration has seized Iranian and Venezuelan-linked tankers that are carrying what the administration could argue is contraband worth seizing.

“The question is more of a domestic issue for the United States and a consistency issue in articulating what it’s actually doing,” given President Trump’s repeated reversals on military and economic positions in dealing with the ongoing conflict with Iran, Ralby said.

He pointed to the U.S. seizure of an Iranian-flagged cargo ship known as the Touska in May, after it attempted to bypass the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and vessels. Iran condemned the ship’s seizure as “piracy” and urged the United Nations to intervene.

“The claims were simultaneous — that this was sanctions enforcement, which is a peacetime construct — and blockade enforcement, which is a law of naval warfare construct. You can’t have both,” Ralby said.

Thomas Lee, an international law professor at Fordham University School of Law said that while it’s possible using prize law could streamline the process, prosecutors may run aground in cases involving vessels that the U.S. has alleged are affiliated with countries like Iran or Venezuela but sail under the flag of a different country. He suggested that the third nation could challenge the legality of the seizure because Congress has not authorized a war with Iran.

Lee added that if the U.S. were to reactivate prize law, it’s likely that adversaries could attempt to interdict American-flagged ships in the future.

“Twenty, 30, 40, 50 years from now, definitely, right?” Lee said. “I mean, the Chinese could be doing it in the South China Sea, and it just doesn’t seem like a very prudent idea for the long term.”

Another challenge, Lee said, is physically bringing the vessels to a U.S. port.

“The whole premise of the prize jurisdiction was that you actually had the ship and the cargo physically present in the jurisdiction of the court that condemned it as enemy property, and so I don’t know how they’re getting around that,” Lee said, adding that the boats would need to be docked in southern Texas if that is where the U.S. is going to open up prize court proceedings.

It is unclear what a prize law case will look like since no U.S. court has seen a prize case brought by the United States since the Spanish-American War, experts said. There is also uncertainty around the number of vessels that would be subject to the laws.

“I think we’re in a little bit of a make-it-up-as-we-go-along kind of situation here, partly because no one alive has been involved in a prize court in the United States,” Ralby said.

Pete Hegseth’s problems are getting harder to ignore

2026-09-03T17:16:47.289Z / CNN

When GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell voted against Pete Hegseth for defense secretary last year, he bypassed the big-ticket controversies over Hegseth’s personal life and instead focused on his lack of experience.

The former Republican Senate leader cast the job leading the Pentagon as a “daily test with staggering consequences for the security of the American people and our global interests.” He said Hegseth had “failed, as yet, to demonstrate that he will pass this test.”

Those words loom increasingly large over Hegseth’s rocky tenure. A growing series of controversies have tested Republicans’ willingness to stand by him and may leave them wondering what’s next.

And it increasingly seems that Hegseth could be a political problem for the Trump administration, too.

The big news recently was another shakeup in the Pentagon — this time the resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, which focused attention on Hegseth’s leadership and culture war fixation. That even led a couple of prominent retiring Republicans to call for Hegseth’s job.

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who was a crucial vote to confirm the defense secretary last year, said he had “never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country.” He also said Hegseth was “intimidated by competence.”

Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska agreed with Tillis, saying in an interview on CNN’s “AC360” on Wednesday night that Hegseth had “not been a very good leader in many ways.”

Other Republicans didn’t call for Hegseth’s exit but did raise concerns about what’s happening at the Pentagon.

House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers said he was “tired of all the churn” at the Defense Department and added, “I want to see some stability over there.”

And House Defense Appropriations Chairman Ken Calvert bemoaned “a number of disruptions in the department” and suggested they need to stop.

While the GOP backlash over Driscoll’s departure has yet to expand, it’s merely the latest example of Republicans raising concerns about Hegseth.

And those concerns have often come from high places, including chairmen of both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees and other committees, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and several senators who voted to confirm Hegseth:

• Just weeks into Hegseth’s tenure, Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker decried Hegseth’s comments about concessions Ukraine would have to make as a “rookie mistake.” Hegseth backed off the comments.
• Wicker has also said it was inappropriate for Hegseth to try and discipline Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona for participating in a video telling service members to disobey illegal orders.
• Ex-House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner has questioned the administration’s boat strikes killing alleged drug traffickers without due process and raised concerns about the information the Pentagon is sharing about the Iran war.
• Sen. Rand Paul, who chairs the homeland security committee, has said Hegseth’s handling of questions about the boat strikes shows he’s either “lying to us … or he’s incompetent.”
• Other GOP senators have recently raised concerns about the Pentagon excluding Democrats from briefings, including classified ones. “The Democrat members need to be brought up to speed,” Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said last month.

That’s a lot. And it doesn’t even include Hegseth’s sharing of highly sensitive information about impending military strikes on the unclassified app, Signal. An inspector general’s report last year found that Hegseth could have jeopardized both the mission in Yemen and risked harm to US troops.

The Pentagon, for its part, has defended his leadership in previous comments to CNN as ushering in a new era for the department at the president’s direction.

But it seems the drip-drip-drip of controversy has registered with the American people, too.

Polls in recent months from Quinnipiac University and Marquette Law School show Hegseth about 20 points underwater. Registered voters disapproved of him 56%-34% in the former, and Americans viewed him unfavorably 46%-27% in the latter.

Both polls suggest he’s one of the most unpopular Trump Cabinet members – and possibly the most unpopular.

His -22 approval rating was worse than Vice President JD Vance (-17), Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (-9) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (-8) in recent polling from Quinnipiac and Fox News.

The Marquette poll in May also showed Hegseth’s support among the GOP is soft.

While 46% of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents had very favorable opinions of Rubio and 43% had the same with Vance, Hegseth’s number was just 29%.

Nearly 1 in 5 GOP-leaning Americans disliked Hegseth.

What’s more, just 1% of independents had a strongly favorable opinion of Hegseth, compared to 35% who had a strongly unfavorable one.

For now, President Donald Trump doesn’t want to hear it. He said this week that Hegseth is “doing a fantastic job.”

But amid a series of controversies and an unpopular Iran war that doesn’t look like it’s ending anytime soon, Hegseth is certainly trending toward embattled status.

Election officials raise alarm over implementing new mail voting rules before midterms: “Virtually impossible”

2026-09-03T15:45:00-0400 / CBS News

Washington — As legal battles over the U.S. Postal Service’s new regulations for mail ballots move forward, state and local election officials are raising concerns about the logistical hurdles they will have to surmount to implement the requirements just weeks before the November elections.

Mail ballots will go out to voters in several states in mid-September — and by Friday in one — leaving election officials with little time to make the changes that the Postal Service is calling for, if the rule is allowed to take effect. In Wisconsin, clerks in two municipalities have already sent out ballots, since state law allows them to do so as soon as the results of the primaries are certified.

The Trump administration has said the rule imposes “modest informational requirements” on states and localities, and “should not prevent a single voter from voting by mail.”

But numerous top election officials are warning that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to satisfy the new requirements, saying they would impose significant financial costs and strain resources.

“The bottom line is that it is effectively impossible for these requirements to be implemented in advance of 2026 without causing mass disenfranchisement and ballot delays,” Anna Baldwin, director of voting rights litigation at the Campaign Legal Center, told CBS News. “There are 10,000 local jurisdictions in the country that administer elections. When we think about this as a rule imposing requirements on the states, that’s true. But more importantly, it’s a rule that imposes requirements on every jurisdiction that actually does the mechanics of absentee balloting.”

The states’ concerns over the new processes have been detailed in remarkable court filings in the ongoing legal battle. One official in New York said that adding voters to a new portal would require more than 10 years’ worth of cumulative work by state and local employees. Another from California said that based on Postal Service estimates, scanning individual ballots for every voter in the state would take roughly 43 years, underscoring the huge logistical hurdles that states are facing.

What the new rule does

The new rule was published by the Postal Service on Aug. 21. A federal judge overseeing a lawsuit brought by 24 states led by Democrats and the District of Columbia has temporarily barred the agency from implementing key aspects of the measure for the Nov. 3 elections. The judge, Indira Talwani, is considering whether to grant the states longer-term relief.

Under the rule, states must include specific design elements on mail ballot envelopes, including barcodes that are unique to each voter. State or local election officials must also submit certain voter information into an online portal, including their names, addresses and barcodes. Those voters will be enrolled with the Postal Service and included on state-specific “Mail-In and Absentee Participation Lists.”

The rule requires postal workers to review and verify ballot mail being sent to voters by states and localities. Any ballot mailings that don’t comply with the requirements “will not be accepted and will be returned” to the election offices, the Postal Service said.

The court submissions from election officials highlight not only the difficulties with adhering to the Postal Service’s new regulations, but also the varying procedures and rules that govern each state’s elections, a reflection of the Constitution’s command that states are responsible for setting the “times, places and manner” of elections.

“Deciding whether to have a mail voting program, when to say everybody’s eligible to receive a mail ballot or only some people who have an absentee excuse who are sick or out of the jurisdiction, that is the variability that states have defined and it’s their power to do that under the Constitution,” Baldwin said. “The idea is that state governments get to create those powers and those laws because they’re in touch with their voters and they’re responsive to their constituents.”

Separate from the concerns of election officials, a whistleblower has warned of “potentially catastrophic problems” with the Postal Service’s system. The agency’s new mail ballot portal is “untested” and its development “rushed,” the whistleblower said in a disclosure provided to Congress. The anonymous official also warned that the Postal Service’s new verification process could keep significant numbers of mail ballots from being delivered.

Paper shortages and already-printed envelopes

In declarations submitted to the federal court in Boston, numerous election officials from different states said that in order to adhere to the ballot design requirements, they would have to scrap envelopes that have already been paid for and printed.

Scott Nago, Hawaii’s chief election officer, said in a filing that the state would have to throw out the envelopes used by voters to return their ballots, since they were printed with a static barcode for each of its four county clerks. Those already-ordered return envelopes cost the state $79,000, Nago said.

He also warned that “it may not be possible to get new orders of [those] envelopes delivered to Hawaii from the continent on such short notice.”

In Colorado, which expects to mail more than 4 million ballots to voters for the upcoming election, two of its vendors have said that they would have to get rid of a combined 1.3 million already-printed ballot return envelopes because they don’t contain individualized barcodes.

Reprinting those envelopes “would impose significant costs on Colorado counties and may not even be possible depending on how widespread an issue this is and whether the vendors can procure sufficient paper,” Hilary Rudy, the deputy state elections director, said in a filing.

Vendors for Washington state have also poured cold water on their ability to reprint ballot envelopes to meet the Postal Service’s design rules. The state anticipates sending ballots to 5.1 million voters for the upcoming election. But one of three vendors used by Washington counties to print election materials indicated it couldn’t reprint ballot envelopes after Aug. 27, while a second indicated it didn’t have the capacity to print new envelopes at all, Director of Elections Stuart Holmes said.

Even still, the state estimates reprinting all ballot envelopes would cost $1.9 million.

“This would be catastrophic for Washington elections because Washington is an entirely vote-by-mail state and the State no longer has the infrastructure to accommodate a last-minute reversion to in-person voting,” Holmes said.

Potential paper issues are also plaguing Oregon’s ability to reprint envelopes.

The state’s vendors “do not have a stockpile of paper,” said Oregon Elections Director Dena Dawson. “Post-pandemic paper supply shortages mean that paper suppliers may not be able to timely supply our vendors with the paper they need” to provide new envelopes.

But even adding the unique, voter-specific barcodes required on ballot envelopes presents issues for states and municipalities, election officials said.

In Massachusetts, state law does not require envelopes to include the specific barcodes mandated by the Postal Service, so its 351 municipalities would have to obtain new computer software to create and apply the codes. Doing so would be a costly endeavor for some of Massachusetts’ smaller municipalities who don’t mail large numbers of ballots to voters, said Michelle Tassinari, who leads Massachusetts’ elections division.

“To require these municipalities to purchase equipment capable of applying an Intelligent Mail barcode would likely deplete their municipal budgets,” she said in a filing.

In Colorado, 14 of its 64 counties do not use the barcodes required by the Postal Service on ballot mail, and most of its counties do not include those markings on return envelopes.

Adopting the unique barcodes depends in part on population size, Rudy, the deputy state elections director said: 71% of the counties that do not use the barcodes have a population of less than 10,000 active registered voters.

“These counties typically employ a single individual to administer elections and often manually print ballots, stuff envelopes, and mail ballots by hand,” she wrote. “These counties likely would be unable to comply with the IMb requirement, and by extension, Colorado’s requirement that they mail a ballot to every active voter.”

In Maryland, voters can opt to access their ballot online through a secure email link, and the state expects roughly 72,000 ballots will be delivered by email and returned through the mail. Those voters either print the return envelope or hand address it using a state-provided template. But these return envelopes don’t have unique barcodes, and the Maryland State Board of Elections “has not identified a technical or manual way to do this,” said Melissia Dorsey, the state’s assistant deputy administrator for election policy.

“As a result, this rule potentially disenfranchises all mail-in voters who are signed up to receive mail-in ballots via secure email link,” she said in a declaration.

The mail ballot portal

The Postal Service’s new regulations require state or local elections officials to submit specific data to the “Federal Ballot Mail Portal” before mail ballots can be sent to voters. Initial lists of voters who will receive mail ballots must be entered at least 30 days before the election, though states can add, change or remove data from the portal to account for new voters, new requests for mail ballots or other changes.

But state officials warned that the process of enrolling their voters into the portal will be time intensive.

Don Millis, a Republican who chairs the Wisconsin Election Commission, said the Postal Service has not issued instructions on how to use the portal or how to authorize users. He warned in a filing that it would be “virtually impossible” to ensure that each mail voter in Wisconsin is enrolled through the portal.

“As a practical matter it’s not feasible given the decentralized nature of this. It’s going to be a very challenging environment if the stay is lifted,” he told CBS News, referring to the judge’s order temporarily blocking the rule.

Wisconsin’s elections are administered by 1,850 municipal clerks, and more than 2,500 employees can make changes to voter records on the state’s voter registration system, he said. As a result, those 2,500 workers would need to be trained on how to use the portal, be granted access to it and then enter voters’ data before Sept. 17, when clerks are required under state law to send out mail ballots.

“I think it’s good to do what you can to prevent noncitizens from voting, but I think many people at the national level have this incorrect view of mail-in ballots,” he said. “It’s not the first time that Republicans at the national level have shot themselves in the foot.”

New York’s co-executive director of the state Board of Elections, Kristen Zebrowski Stavisky, estimated that it will take roughly an additional minute per voter to include them on the Postal Service’s list and address any issues. Across the state’s 58 local boards of elections, she said that amounts to 20,000 additional hours of effort, or 533 work weeks.

Paul Linnell, Minnesota’s elections director, said it will take roughly 8,500 hours for elections staff to become authorized users of the portal and enroll voters. Linnell said barcode information is not included in the state’s voter registration system and will need to be added manually to the new federal portal.

“Even assuming the data verification, entry, and submission process takes only 1 minute per voter, this adds up to a significant amount of staff time that must be diverted from other critical activities,” he said.

On its end, the Postal Service has estimated it should take mail workers less than a minute to scan a ballot’s barcode, so the verification process for large mailings should take “no more than a few hours.”

But the states said that under that time frame, it would take the Postal Service 43 years to scan mail ballots from all of California’s 23 million registered voters, if they all cast their ballots by mail. For the 2024 general election, 16 million mail ballots were cast, according to data from the secretary of state.

Madeleine May contributed to this report.

Dem Senate nominee changes tune on ICE after vowing not ‘one more dime’ for agency

2026-09-03T12:41:52-04:00 / Fox News

Hallie Shoffner’s shift on immigration enforcement became fodder for attack ads in her race against Cotton

By Alex Miller, Fox News

Published September 3, 2026 12:41pm EDT

Dem candidate makes ICE U-turn after vowing to defund agency

Arkansas Democratic Senate nominee Hallie Shoffner vowed to defund ICE in June but has since backtracked after opponent Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., attacked her over it. (Credit: Young Adult Committee of the Sebastian County NAAC,June 7)

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A Democrat running for the Senate in ruby-red Arkansas once called to defund immigration enforcement, but has since changed her tune.

Arkansas Senate Democratic nominee Hallie Shoffner, a farmer and political newcomer whose first time in the political arena is this midterm cycle, is running to unseat Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in November.

As Election Day creeps closer, Cotton has gone on the offensive against her, attacking an apparent flip-flop in her position on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the immigration enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security that became a political lightning rod in Congress earlier this year.

DEM REP SETH MOULTON SAYS PARTY HAS NO IMMIGRATION PLAN, IS ONLY ‘OPPOSITION TO TRUMP’

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents walk a detainee out of the Ventura County Government Center in Ventura, Calif., on July 27, 2026.(AFP via Getty Images)

Shoffner, during an appearance in June at the Immigrant Heritage Month Business Expo in Springdale, Ark., was asked whether she would defund ICE — a position several Democrats running for office have taken this cycle, including progressives Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota.

“I would vote to defund ICE as it exists right now,” Shoffner said. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement was created not that long ago, and it no longer serves the purpose it was originally created for.”

“I would not spend one more dime on ICE, because — not just because of the human dignity issue — but also the fact that it is now the largest law enforcement agency in the country,” she continued. “It has 10 times the budget of the organization that fights child sex trafficking.”

GOP ADVANCES ICE FUNDING PACKAGE AFTER FORCING TRUMP’S CONTROVERSIAL $2B FUND INTO RETREAT

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6397885799112

ICE became a political third rail earlier this year after fatal shootings in Minnesota and was at the center of the longest government shutdown in history, when Senate Democrats refused to fund the agency absent stringent reforms.

That prompted Senate Republicans to front-load $70 billion in funding for ICE and Border Patrol earlier this year.

Cotton’s campaign cut Shoffner’s comments into attack ads and accused her of donating to former Vice President Kamala Harris 25 times, which prompted Shoffner to further define her position.

In a Facebook post from Tuesday in which Cotton was asked by a voter about Shoffner’s ICE position, she jumped into the comment section to argue, “I don’t want to defund ICE, I want to reform it.”

‘ABOLISH ICE’ DEMOCRAT FREEZES IN LIVE INTERVIEW WHEN ASKED WHO SHOULD ENFORCE IMMIGRATION LAWS

Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and James Lankford of Oklahoma attend a news conference following Senate Republican policy luncheons at the U.S. Capitol on June 23, 2026.(Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“My opponent wants to defund ICE, just like Democrat socialists Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Abdul El-Sayed,” Cotton told Fox News Digital. “Doing so would protect criminals from deportation, like the illegal alien gang member who was arrested in Carroll County just days ago. Defunding ICE would make Arkansas more dangerous.”

Shoffner’s bid to unseat Cotton, who is running for a third term in the upper chamber, is one of the tougher battles during this midterm cycle for Democrats.

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Arkansas hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since former Sen. Mark Pryor, who Cotton defeated in 2014. Shoffner also doesn’t have the backing of the Democratic establishment, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in Washington, D.C.

Shoffner has put distance between herself and Schumer, too, telling Politico in March that while Democrats had found the issue of affordability to be a “magic bullet” at the national level, Arkansans were going to give Schumer “the side eye, because what does he know about affordability?”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

ICE agent federally charged with lying over shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant

2026-09-03 12:56 PM ET / CNN

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Whitney Wild, Holmes Lybrand

Updated 2 hr ago
Updated Sep 3, 2026, 1:43 PM ET
PUBLISHED Sep 3, 2026, 12:56 PM ET

This booking photo shows Christian Castro, an ICE agent charged in connection with a shooting involving two Venezuelan people in Minnesota earlier this year.

Cameron County Sheriff’s Office

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has been federally charged with lying about the events leading up to his shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in the leg earlier this year, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

The charges against ICE officer Christian Castro are not yet publicly available, but a person familiar with the matter told CNN that he is facing several counts of making false statements.

This is the first time the Justice Department has charged an officer for conduct that occurred on-duty during highly publicized immigration operations nationwide. Local prosecutors in Minnesota had already charged Castro with second-degree assault and making a false report earlier this year.

CNN attempted to reach a lawyer for Castro for comment.

The Justice Department is still considering whether to bring civil rights charges against Castro, one of the sources said.

Castro also faces the separate state charges in Minnesota. He was released from a Texas jail last week after the governor there declined to immediately approve his extradition to Minnesota.

Federal agents fire munitions and pepper balls as community members protest, as tensions rise after federal law enforcement agents were involved in a shooting incident in north Minneapolis, on January 14.

Ryan Murphy/Reuters

Federal prosecutors initially charged 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, whom Castro shot, and another man with attacking an ICE officer with a snow shovel and broom stick. But those charges were dropped after investigators reviewed surveillance footage and other material from the incident that conflicted with Castro’s account.

Related article A federal agent monitors the scene as protesters gather near the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis on January 9. Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images Federal judge won’t intervene in Minnesota extradition fight over ICE agent being detained in Texas 5 min read

Castro and a second agent were soon placed on administrative leave. Federal prosecutors told the judge overseeing the case against Sosa-Celis that the agents had made “false statements” under oath, and former ICE Director Todd Lyons said later the Justice Department was investigating the “untruthful statements.”

Prosecutors in Minnesota, who charged Castro in May, allege that he shot Sosa-Celis in the back of the leg through the door of Sosa-Celis’ apartment.

The shooting occurred after ICE officers had attempted to pull over a truck belonging to an undocumented immigrant named Joffre Barrera, the state alleged. Sosa-Celis’ cousin and DoorDash driver, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, was behind the wheel and drove off from the officers, they said.

According to Sosa-Celis, Aljorna ran from the truck and was tackled steps away from Sosa-Celis’ apartment by an ICE agent. Sosa-Celis called for Aljorna to get inside and, once both cousins were behind the door, a shot rang out, Sosa-Celis said.

“I closed the door and as I was locking it, I heard the shot, and that’s when I realized I had been shot in the leg,” Sosa-Celis told CNN at the time during a Facebook livestream from a hospital.

This story has been updated with additional information.

Good Good Golf CEO Matt Kendrick resigns after furor over Callaway ad

September 3, 2026 10:51 AM EDT / CBS News

By Aimee Picchi

Good Good Golf CEO Matt Kendrick and President Joe Flannery left the company on Wednesday, according to an internal company email shared with CBS News. Their departures follow a backlash over a co-branded Callaway Golf ad that was panned as sexist and trivializing violence against women.

Nahid Giga, a co-founder of Good Good Golf and one of its first investors, will step in as interim CEO effective immediately, according to the Sept. 2 email from Good Good Golf Chief Financial Officer Alex Puchala.

The management shakeup comes amid widespread public criticism over the ad, which was released online and quickly pulled after viewers objected to its depiction of a male golfer shoving a female golfer to the ground when she tries to use his driver.

In the aftermath of the controversy, Callaway ended its three-year partnership with the digital media company, and Good Good also said it would step back from sponsoring one of the PGA Tour’s tournaments this fall.

Good Good has said the ad was supposed to be a parody of the horror movie “Obsession,” but critics failed to see the humor and condemned the video for making light of violence against women.

Both Good Good and Callaway apologized for the ad. But Kendrick on Aug. 28 posted on social media that Callaway Golf had asked “us to take the fall and then drops us in a coordinated media blitz.”

“This is a difficult day for the entire Good Good family,” Puchala wrote in the email, which was sent to company employees. “Matt helped build something extraordinary that exceeded all expectations and continues to bring countless new fans to the sport. What began as a small group of friends playing golf is now a growing global community.”

Puchala added that Garrett Clark — a co-founder of Good Good who portrayed the male golfer in the ad — will remain at the firm.

“Garrett and the creator team will keep doing what they do best, making great content and engaging our fans who are eager to see and hear from us,” Puchala wrote.

‘Why would he do this to us?’: Trump’s foreign beef push is hurting his base, Republicans warn

2026-09-03 09:00 EDT / Fox News

Lawmakers from South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas say cattle producers feel the president ‘pulled the rug’ out from under them

By Alex Miller , Elizabeth Elkind Fox News

Published September 3, 2026 9:00am EDT

GOP worried waiving beef tariffs harms US ranchers

‘The Big Weekend Show’ panel discusses the potential economic fallout from waiving beef tariffs, including concerns that the move could undercut American cattlemen and hurt U.S. ranchers.

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Republicans are warning President Donald Trump that his decision to flood supermarkets with foreign ground beef is hurting a key group in his base as the midterm elections near their climax.

Voters in beef-industry-heavy states, like South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, supported Trump in his bid for a second term. Now, lawmakers from those states say his decision to lift tariffs on hundreds of thousands of tons of foreign beef is putting the very people who elected him in a bind.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who is running for re-election, said his voters in South Dakota “love the president,” and view him like a member of the family, but the beef import order feels like the administration “pulled the rug right out from underneath” them.

TRUMP WANTS CHEAPER BEEF. REPUBLICANS IN KEY RACES WARN HIS PLAN GOES TOO FAR

Cattle are herded at Lew Thompson’s ranch on June 17, 2026, in Frio County, Texas.(San Antonio Express-News via Getty Images)

“They’re hurt. I mean, they feel like they’ve been let down,” Rounds said.

“Like, how could, you know, our friend, this guy that’s as close to us as they’ve ever been to a president, how could he do this to them? I mean, that’s the way they feel,” he continued. “And that’s the expression they’re giving me is, ‘Why would he do this to us? Doesn’t he understand ag?’”

Republicans are searching for an economic message to bring to voters as grocery bills, gas prices and other day-to-day necessities grow more expensive. Some argue that kneecapping ranchers and farmers, some of Trump’s most loyal supporters, in the name of affordability runs counter to that.

“I think people want an explanation,” a House Republican granted anonymity to speak freely told Fox News Digital. “We want to be able to go to the ranchers, who are big Trump supporters, right, to be able to go to them and say, this administration is fighting for you.”

THE UNEXPECTED FORCE KEEPING BEEF PRICES HIGH AND WHY THE PRESSURE COULD LAST FOR YEARS

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6403879147112

Trump signed the order last week with the intent of flooding the market with 300,000 metric tons of imported ground beef, lowering costs for consumers thanks to a commitment that the product would be sold at 25% below current market prices over a 90-day span.

He also contended that it would allow ranchers to regrow the nation’s herds, which, thanks to a combination of drought and the invasive New World screwworm, has dwindled to historic lows not seen since the 1950s, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

“I’m sympathetic to what he’s trying to get done,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Keloland. “He’s trying to lower beef prices, which I think we’re all supportive of. I just don’t think this is the way to do it. And so, we have a lot of beef producers here in South Dakota; they produce the highest-quality beef in the world, and we’re trying to build our herds back up.”

As the blowback mounts, the administration has acknowledged that ranchers are bearing the brunt of the blow. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer huddled privately with House Republicans on Wednesday afternoon, when several lawmakers pressed him on the subject of Trump’s beef imports.

NEBRASKA RANCHERS STRUGGLE TO RECOVER FROM HISTORIC WILDFIRES AS DROUGHT WORSENS CRISIS

President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on Aug. 31, 2026.(Annabelle Gordon/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Sources inside the room told Fox News Digital that Greer acknowledged ranchers were frustrated but maintained the import strategy was temporary. He argued it was the administration’s way of easing high prices on the market in the short term, the sources said.

But multiple House GOP lawmakers still said they were concerned as they exited the meeting.

“This is not just a one-year issue on the affordability of beef. We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got a Made-in-America-first beef program. That means standing with our cattlemen on that,” Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital. “We’ve said the same thing to Greer in there.”

Nunn, who is a top target for Democrats in November, said he planned to raise the issue again during dinner with Trump at the White House on Wednesday evening.

Rep. Troy Downing, R-Mont., pointed out that it was a relatively small amount of beef for just a 90-day period but said he was worried about the timing as it overlaps with the time of year farmers bring their cattle to market.

“If a rancher is expecting to get a price at market that suddenly drops out from underneath them, they’re faced with two things — they don’t have a stable market, so do I invest in heifers for next year? Or do I have to sell more calves to make up for that deficit for my operating costs? Which, neither one is helping rebuild the herd,” Downing told Fox News Digital.

House Main Street Caucus Chairman Mike Flood, R-Neb., said he was opposed to a “tariff regime that undercuts American ranchers,” but said Trump’s policies were helping in the “big picture.”

Compounding people’s anxiety in the meeting was Trump’s trade war with Canada, which that House Republican said made northern-border-state GOP lawmakers “nervous.”

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital there would likely be “quite a few” follow-up meetings.

“It was absolutely outstanding, we had a tremendous amount of participation and people that were really excited to ask good questions,” he said of the meeting in general.

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And Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at an event in Iowa on Tuesday that the administration understood that “ranchers felt like that was a gut punch.”

The White House argued that Trump “has done more for American agriculture than anyone” with trade deals, foreign market access expansion, lowering input costs, bolstering the farm safety net, doubling the death tax exemption, ending taxes on rural property loan interest, and creating rural opportunity zones.”

“At the same time, he is delivering on his promise to consumers by reducing beef prices while allowing our American beef herd to grow,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital. “The President will continue taking actions to support our great farmers while driving economic prosperity for all Americans.”

Republican critics of the move are urging the administration to look at other methods to expand the nation’s cattle herds.

Several Republicans, led by Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., wrote to Rollins and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to lift Biden-era rules and ease federal guardrails to allow for more access to grazing land for cattle.

“The Federal government must remain laser-focused on partnering with the industry and state efforts for ranchers, expand grazing on public and private lands, and improve protein processing capacity,” they wrote in a letter to the top Trump officials on Tuesday.

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.