Interior releases surveillance footageThe Interior Department released surveillance video Tuesday that it says shows two people damaging the lining of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and trying to remove part of it. The footage, which the department says was recorded on June 19, appears to show a man and a woman leaning deep into the pool and pulling at the material along the bottom. In Washington, even a repair project can turn into a full-scale argument once cameras, press releases, and a few people with a social media account get involved.Officials say the case is a federal crimeInterior said destroying, injuring, defacing, or removing cultural or archeological resources is a federal crime, and it said the investigation is still open. The department also said several arrests were made over the weekend. Officials have started putting up a fence around the Reflecting Pool, and Trump said repairs are expected to begin soon. The dispute also comes after graffiti reading "86 47" appeared on the grass of the National Mall and on the bottom of the pool, which only adds another layer of bad judgment to a site that already had enough paperwork.The media fight grew right along with the damageThe story…

Judge Stays Inside the Election Lane Boston-based U.S. District Judge Denise Casper, an Obama appointee, permanently barred the Trump administration from carrying out most of the president’s election executive order, including the part that would have required documentary proof of citizenship when people register to vote. Casper said the Constitution leaves election rules to states and Congress, not the White House. That is not a minor footnote. It is the sort of separation-of-powers fight that sends lawyers rushing to printers and everyone else to the coffee pot. The Justice Department said it will appeal, so the case now gets the familiar federal-court road trip. https://twitter.com/BillMelugin_/status/2069828104206377204?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw What Trump Tried to Change Trump signed Executive Order 14248 in March 2025, calling for what he described as free, fair, and honest elections and saying federal rules were not being enforced strongly enough against fraud, illegal voting, and late ballots. The order argued that states should safeguard elections and that noncitizens must not be able to register. It also pushed a proof-of-citizenship standard for voter registration, a step supporters see as basic paperwork and opponents treat as a national emergency. Bureaucracies do love a good crisis, especially one that keeps their power intact. The…