The Hound | Feb. 12

Hi there,

It’s Thursday. Pam Bondi testified before the House Judiciary Committee, refusing to apologize to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims who were in the room and fighting with most members of Congress. Google complied with an ICE subpoena, handing over a student journalist’s bank and credit card numbers. And the House GOP is pushing the SAVE Act, a strict proof-of-citizenship requirement for voters that could impact the midterm elections later this year.

The House GOP’s SAVE Act is being framed as “election integrity,” but its core provision—requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote—would make participation dramatically harder for millions of eligible Americans. Married women who changed their names, rural voters, seniors, students, and working-class Americans without passports could all face new barriers. This is not a minor administrative tweak; it is a structural change that could shrink the electorate ahead of critical elections. When the press strips away consequences and context, it obscures how restrictive documentation requirements function in practice — sanitized language leaves the public uninformed about what is truly at stake.

🖊️ Add your name to call on major news organizations to cover the SAVE Act clearly and directly as a voter suppression measure—examining who would be excluded, how implementation would work, and why these requirements are being advanced now. The media must tell that story plainly.

Read about this, and more, with today’s stories:

Google Fulfilled ICE Subpoena Demanding Student Journalist’s Bank and Credit Card Numbers (The Intercept)

House GOP pushes strict proof-of-citizenship requirement for voters ahead of midterm elections (AP News)

Pam Bondi Refuses to Apologize to Epstein Survivors (Mother Jones)

What to know as Iran and the U.S. weigh holding a second round of nuclear talks (PBS)

Citing National Security, Trump Has Abandoned Fenceline Monitoring at Coke Ovens (Inside Climate News)

Do L.A. and D.C. Have Their Own Mamdanis? (The American Prospect)

The airspace around El Paso is open again. Why it closed is in dispute (NPR)

Washoe Tribe buys 10,000 acres in one of California’s largest ever land returns (The Guardian)

Organized Money: The End of United Health Care for All (The American Prospect)

Until next time,

Harry from The Hound

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