Good morning! Go ahead and scratch Arizona off your list of “I could maybe live there” states. Tragically, someone living in the northern part of Arizona near the Grand Canyon just died of plague. Yes, plague plague. The plague. The Black Death that killed 30-60% of Europe in the 1300s. Apparently, the U.S. sees about seven cases per year — mostly out West — that spread to humans via mice and prairie dogs. It’s usually treated with antibiotics, but successful recovery sadly isn’t a surefire thing.

In lighter news, President Trump is slapping new 30% tariffs on Mexico and the European Union. Needless to say, their leaders aren't thrilled. The new rates will hit on August 1 if new trade agreements aren’t reached by then.

STATE

🌐 Will State Department layoffs launch a lean, mean, diplomatic machine?

The State Department’s lobby was full of emotion as tearful crowds applauded their now-former coworkers as they exited the building on Friday afternoon. Many of the 1,350 people who were laid off had worked there for decades.

Why? The big changes come as part of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s huge department-wide reorganization plan. As he sees it, the State Department is already ineffective. It has “long struggled to perform basic diplomatic functions” due to redundant offices, turf wars between divisions, and a culture of bureaucratic infighting that wears down even the most dedicated public servants.

• Rubio also slammed some offices as full of "left-wing activists" who push their own politics instead of the president's.

What’s changing? More than 300 bureaus will be impacted. Some will be eliminated, others will be merged or retooled. Rubio says the new, streamlined org chart will empower regional bureaus and embassies to tackle problems in their areas (rather than using offices with specific issue focuses).

• The State Department also now administers foreign aid after recently absorbing the once independent USAID.

About 15% of State’s U.S.-based employees have already been let go. That includes Friday’s ousters and the 1,600 lucky people who recently took voluntary “we’ll pay you to quit” offers. Most workers were civil employees rather than Foreign Service officials (aka: diplomats).

• Layoffs suck. On the bright side, though, affected employees are getting between 60 and 120 days of paid leave.

• Department leaders say staffing at overseas embassies and consulates won’t be reduced.

Proponents of the moves say the State Department is bloated and needs to adapt to be effective. For example, divisions related to the old war in Afghanistan are no longer needed. Many of these changes, they also point out, were recommended by the recent bipartisan State Department Reform Commission.

Opponents say the changes will weaken America’s ability to respond to emerging threats in a dangerous time, leaving us "less safe and less secure." They claim Rubio’s chaotic plan is ideological and will leave critical offices understaffed and without vital diplomatic expertise.

…elsewhere in the State Department, President Trump nominated Australian immigrant, author, and social media pro Nick Adams to serve as U.S. ambassador to Malaysia.

GOVERNMENT

🏫 The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is suing the State of California. Yes, over state regulations that the DOJ says jack up egg prices nationwide. But also over alleged Title IX violations. Title IX is a 1972 law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education (at least when federal funding is involved). California is one of 21 states that allow transgender students to compete in girls’ school sports. The DOJ says that's unfair to other athletes. And with $44 billion in federal funding at stake, California is fighting back. This is a hot topic right now without much legal precedent. Clarity should come soon, though, as the Supreme Court is set to hear a case on this issue during its next term.

⛑️ The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is doing its thing in Texas. Its urban search and rescue teams were sent from five other states to help with post-flood recovery efforts. But critics say a four-day delay in those deployments harmed their effectiveness. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), however, and Secretary Kristi Noem said DHS teams were on site "within just an hour or two" after the flooding. The Trump administration had planned to “eliminate” FEMA in favor of giving disaster aid cash to state governments. They now appear to have changed their tune and prefer instead to "overhaul" FEMA in its present form.

🎖️ The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified and recovered the remains of a young Marine who went missing during the Battle of Tarawa in 1943. Private Richard Gordon Wright finally made it home over the weekend. Airport workers, passengers, and the pilots of other planes paused to recognize his sacrifice when his flight landed at a bustling airport in Oklahoma City. The DPAA is a sub-agency of the Department of Defense that works full-time to recover the 81,000 American soldiers who remain missing from past wars.

SECURITY

📆 One year later: looking back at Butler

Well, that was one way to make Claire’s seem appealing. Yesterday marked the first anniversary of President Donald Trump getting his ear pierced by a would-be assassin’s bullet while he spoke at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. If he hadn’t turned his head at that moment, we’d be living in a very different world (with a whole new slate of future “Jeopardy!” questions).

The Secret Service has since instituted "numerous operational, policy, and organizational reforms" recommended by Congress. Among those? Better information sharing with the local law enforcement agencies that are key to protecting any presidential event.

• Last fall, an investigation of what went wrong said the agency was "complacent" and displayed a "troubling lack of critical thinking."

• Last week, six agents were suspended following another review of the Secret Service’s failures that day.

GAO: A new report from the Government Accountability Office — that's Congress's investigation and auditing unit — found that the Secret Service knew about the threat that day. But bad communication policies meant the agents on the ground were unaware of it.

• The recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill gave the agency an extra $1.17 billion to bring its tech and training up to speed.

Remember the other guy? The would-be killer who was caught hiding in the bushes as Trump golfed in Florida last September? Well, he’s not thrilled about potentially spending life in prison and wants to know why the death penalty isn’t on the table.

Future: Trump’s allies say the near-death experience left him a changed man with "a second lease on life." It’s up to the Secret Service and its new director — cool sunglasses guy in the famous photo — to make sure he stays that way. Especially when an Iranian group has a $40 million bounty on his ear head.

Related: The U.S. Senate is weighing extra security for members of Congress while they’re in D.C. and adding tech-based solutions to their home-state residences.

TRIVIA

A pot farm in California is under investigation for child labor violations. Immigration agents who (controversially) raided the place say the 200 arrests they made included 10 minors, 8 of whom were unaccompanied. We won’t get into details on that story, but most immigration actions like this are conducted by two agencies: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These two agencies have familiar monikers, but they haven’t been around forever. In what year were CBP and ICE founded?

Hint: They were core parts of the then-new Department of Homeland Security.

BRIEFS

● President Trump said Attorney General Pam Bondi "is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!" as calls for her ouster grow. Bondi had long insisted that she would release a list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients. But a DOJ report last week admitted that no such list ever existed.

● In a big loss for Ukraine, a leader of its famed special operations unit was killed by Russian agents in broad daylight in a Kiev parking lot. Three days later, Ukraine announced that it had struck back and killed the two Russian spies responsible.

● The FBI launched a criminal investigation into two Obama-era officials: ex-CIA Director John Brennan and ex-FBI Director James Comey. According to evidence from the current CIA chief, the men allegedly lied to Congress about the 2016 Russia probe.

● With an eye to 2028, Iowa Democrats want the national party to restore their state's traditional place as the first contest in the presidential nomination process. Democrats dethroned Iowa in 2024 to give nonwhite voters more say early in the process.

● Israel and the U.S. are looking into what happened when an American man was killed in the West Bank by Israeli settlers this week. The U.N. views the West Bank (and Gaza) as Palestinian. Israel disputes this and builds settlements in the area to cement its claims.

QUOTE

ANSWER

After 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security was created to hold all sorts of law enforcement and border-related agencies. That included mixing and matching portions of old agencies like the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to create new ones like CBP and ICE. As with the overall department, the two agencies here began operations in March of 2003.