|
 |
Popular Information doesn't just break news; it creates change. Consider a few examples of the impact of this newsletter this year:
On March 17, Popular Information exclusively published an internal Social Security Administration (SSA) memo that revealed plans to significantly limit phone service beginning April 1. The memo said the plan would flood already overburned field offices with millions of additional people, creating "service disruption," "operational strain," and "budget shortfalls." Popular Information's report was covered extensively in the national media and prompted protests from advocacy groups. On April 8, the SSA announced that it was canceling its plans to limit phone service.
On April 15, Popular Information reported that at least 29 people had their ballots in the 2024 general election wrongly discarded by the North Carolina Supreme Court. The state's highest court ruled that about 260 ballots must be tossed because they were cast by people who were "never residents" of the state. The ballots — and thousands of others — were challenged by Jefferson Griffin, a Republican candidate for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court who lost by 734 votes to Democrat Allison Riggs. On April 16, the North Carolina Board of Elections filed a notice in federal court, citing Popular Information's reporting, stating that the votes of people who were wrongly identified would be restored.
On February 3, Popular Information broke the news that DOGE staff at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) received unprecedented access to databases containing sensitive personal information for millions of federal employees. A week later, a coalition of labor unions representing federal workers sued OPM, citing Popular Information's report seven times. On March 24, a federal judge issued an injunction, blocking DOGE's access to the databases.
The Trump administration is targeting publications like Popular Information that publish leaked information. In an April memo, Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) said the Justice Department "will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies." Bondi raised the specter of arresting “members of the news media."
Popular Information will not be intimidated, but we need the resources to prepare for and respond to these potential attacks. If you value our work, you can help us survive whatever comes next by upgrading to a paid subscription today.
 |
Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, thousands of high school students in Oklahoma will be required to learn about President Trump's debunked claims that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud. The lesson will not be part of a course on conspiracy theories, but an official component of the new social studies curriculum created by Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters (R).
The new curriculum includes a section that requires students to "analyze contemporary turning points of 21st-century American society." That requirement includes the following:
Identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of “bellwether county” trends.
In March, Walters said the purpose of this section was to teach "students to think for themselves" and "not be spoon-fed left-wing propaganda." According to Walters, there are "legitimate concerns" about the integrity of the 2020 election that were "raised by millions of Americans in 2020."
Walters is wrong. There are no "discrepancies" in the 2020 election results that validate the claims of Trump and his allies that the results were fraudulent. The new curriculum is simply an amalgamation of unsupported claims.
There was no "sudden halting" of ballot counting in key states. The counting took an extended period in some states because election officials were legally prohibited from counting early ballots in advance. Mail-in balloting is safe and secure. Large increases in vote totals ("batch dumps") happen in every election, impact both parties, and are not a sign of fraud. Record turnout in 2020 was not "unforeseen" — it was due to increased engagement related to the pandemic and other factors. And traditional "bellwether" counties are now more conservative than the nation as a whole.
The new curriculum will cost Oklahoma taxpayers at least $33 million.
Oklahoma's legislature had an opportunity to block the new curriculum. The chairman of the Oklahoma Senate Education Committee, Adam Pugh (R), filed a resolution that would have sent the curriculum back to the Oklahoma State Board of Education for further review. But ultimately, the resolution did not receive a vote.
Moms for Liberty, a far-right activist organization, sent a letter to Republican members of the legislature, praising the new curriculum as "truth-filled, anti-woke, and unapologetically conservative." They also delivered a warning: "In the last few election cycles, grassroots conservative organizations have flipped seats across Oklahoma by holding weak Republicans accountable. If you choose to side with the liberal media and make backroom deals with Democrats to block conservative reform, you will be next."
How Walters jammed his new standards through the State Board of Education
Walters’ new social studies standards were approved by the Oklahoma State Board of Education in February. But many members have since said that Walters used deceptive tactics in order to pass new last-minute changes.
Walters did not send the new standards with his additions to the members of the board until 4 p.m. the day before the board’s 9:30 a.m. meeting. This did not give members enough time to read the new standards, which are around 400 pages long. Some of the members said later that they did not even realize that the new standards were different from the earlier version that they had previously reviewed.
The email sent the day before the meeting “subtly indicate[d]” that updates had been made, but did “not provide any specifics,” 2 News Oklahoma reported. In the meeting, Walters did not mention the specific changes. In an April 24 meeting, one of the board members, Chris VanDenhende, asked Walters to provide documents that noted the changes made, but Walters called the request “irrelevant.”
At the February meeting, Ryan Deatherage, a board member, asked to delay the vote so they had time to read the full standards, but Walters “pressure[d] the board to vote that day, indicating a legislative time crunch,” according to 2 News, which attended the meeting. In reality, they had until April to approve the standards. After the February meeting, multiple members of the board stated that they wanted another chance to review the standards, calling Walters’ tactics a “breach of trust,” the Oklahoman reported.