Wednesday, July 30, 2025
All civic learning topics for this day
Today's Topics
EPA staff ordered to delete 50 years of climate data
EPA staff got orders on July 30, 2025: delete fifty years of climate and pollution data by August 15. Gone forever. The Trump administration calls the data "outdated and biased," but scientists say destroying these records wipes out evidence of corporate pollution and warming trends. Companies that poisoned communities are cheering—no more data means no more lawsuits.
Trump halts DOJ lawsuits against abusive prisons and mental hospitals
The Trump administration halted Justice Department civil rights lawsuits on July 30, 2025, including cases against Louisiana for illegally detaining prisoners past release dates and South Carolina for warehousing mentally ill people in restrictive facilities. The Louisiana case documented 141 people held beyond their sentences in May 2024 alone, while South Carolina violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by denying community-based mental health services.
Feds order all agencies to eliminate non-English services
The Justice Department told all federal agencies on July 30, 2025, to eliminate "non-essential" services in languages other than English. Social Security applications, emergency alerts, Medicare forms—everything goes English-only. Millions of legal residents and U.S. citizens who aren't fluent in English will lose access to services their taxes pay for.
VA cuts $189 million IT budget, fires tech workers
The VA redirected $189 million from its IT budget in July 2025, firing tech workers and freezing new systems that help veterans. Trump also withdrew his VA tech chief nominee after discovering the guy donated to Democrats. Veterans already wait months for benefits using 20-year-old computer systems that crash constantly.
Trump ends duty-free imports under $800, declares Brazil economic threat
President Trump signed executive orders July 30, 2025, suspending duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries and declaring Brazil a threat to US economic security. The de minimis change means packages under $800 now face full tariffs and inspections, affecting millions of small online purchases. Brazil faces potential sanctions after Trump set 50% tariffs, the highest rate, claiming unfair trade practices and insufficient anti-corruption enforcement.
Tariff-driven panic buying creates misleading economic growth data
On July 30, 2025, major news outlets reported contradictory stories about the same economic data. The Washington Post declared "U.S. economy posts strong second quarter, growing at a 3 percent pace," while The New York Times reported "U.S. Economic Growth Softened in First Half of the Year," noting that "Tariffs and uncertainty upended business plans and scrambled consumers' spending decisions." This confusion stems from tariff-driven stockpiling that artificially inflated Q2 GDP while masking underlying economic weakness. The Penn Wharton Budget Model had predicted exactly this statistical manipulation, where panic buying creates temporary growth that reverses once inventory buffers disappear.