Aug 82026

Quick bites6

1. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve has no single countdown

   GAO◈Fuel pricesReadLess

   How unusual is this release?

   The 2022 release of 180 million barrels was the SPR’s largest drawdown, making the current planned 172-million-barrel release nearly as large. Since 1985, DOE has released more than 500 million barrels from the reserve, with nearly 70% of all releases occurring from 2014 through 2025.

   Will the barrels come back?

   DOE structured the 2026 action as an exchange rather than a permanent sale: companies receive crude now and owe barrels back later, generally with an additional premium. That makes the refill schedule part of the policy. A promised return is not the same as oil already underground, and GAO says deferred maintenance and cavern problems can constrain how much usable oil the government can deliver even when the inventory number looks adequate.

2. ICE controls body-camera releases

   AP◈ICE raidsReadLess

   ICE says field officers nationwide will have body cameras by the end of September. Its policy, however, says footage will be released only when doing so is in the agency’s “best interests.”

   Who decides what the public sees?

   A committee of senior ICE officials and lawyers reviews footage of incidents involving death or serious injury and recommends whether to release it. If the agency decides release serves its interests, it generally aims to finish the review within 72 hours. The ICE director may block or indefinitely delay publication under unspecified “specific and compelling circumstances,” and any released video must obscure officers’ faces and other identifying information.

   That distinction is the accountability issue: cameras can preserve evidence for investigators and lawsuits even when footage is not public, but the policy does not create an automatic public-release rule or an independent decision-maker. The people being recorded cannot themselves trigger publication.

3. Pentagon revokes Kendall’s clearance

   APReadLess

   The Pentagon revoked former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s eligibility to access classified information and barred him from sensitive positions, accusing him of an unauthorized disclosure about Air Force One. Kendall said he was “completely mystified” and had not been told what information the government considered classified.

   The dispute follows reporting that the Qatari-donated replacement aircraft lacked some advanced defensive systems. Kendall had said the accelerated conversion left too little time for “all the normal Air Force One modifications” and that he was surprised the plane was used outside the United States. The Pentagon has not identified the allegedly classified statement or the outlet involved, and it did not say whether it referred Kendall for prosecution.

   The immediate penalty is administrative, not a criminal conviction: it removes Kendall’s eligibility for future classified work or sensitive government and contractor roles. Unless the Pentagon identifies the classified statement, names the outlet or discloses a criminal referral, the clearance revocation will remain the government’s only public action against Kendall.

4. Senate confirms Todd Blanche as attorney general, 50–49

   APReadLess

   The Senate confirmed President Trump’s former personal lawyer in an overnight vote. Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joined Democrats in opposition; Bill Cassidy supplied the decisive support after saying Blanche was better positioned than another nominee to push back on Trump when necessary.

   Blanche had already run the Justice Department in an acting capacity since Pam Bondi’s April departure. His nomination nearly failed over a proposed $1.8 billion compensation fund for Trump allies and a settlement provision shielding Trump and his family from IRS audits. Blanche promised in writing to abandon the fund and narrow the tax protection, unlocking support from Republican holdouts.

   Kalshi carried a confirmation market while the vote was unresolved, but the 50–49 result now outranks—and settles—the forecast. The first concrete test is whether Blanche keeps the two written commitments that secured confirmation: abandoning the compensation fund and narrowing the tax protection. The vote did not resolve how he will handle investigations involving Trump’s opponents.

5. Homeowners sue over New York City’s pied-à-terre tax rollout

   CNNReadLess

   Three homeowners sued Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the city finance commissioner, challenging a supplemental tax roll that listed more than 900,000 properties and notices sent to some residents. The complaint does not seek to strike down the underlying surcharge.

   The annual surcharge applies only to qualifying non-primary residences. For 2026–27 and 2027–28, one- to three-family homes enter at a city market value of $5 million, with rates from 0.8% to 1.3%; condos and co-ops enter at $1 million, with rates from 4% to 6.5% under the city’s separate valuation rules. Primary residences used by an owner, tenant or immediate family member are exempt.

   The Department of Finance says only about 17,000 owners received “may be subject” letters and that appearing on the much larger public roll does not mean a bill is due. The lawsuit argues that the rollout wrongly put the burden on residents to prove exemptions and unnecessarily exposed names and addresses. The city extended the exemption deadline to Sept. 18; any surcharge due appears on the Jan. 1, 2027 property-tax bill.

6. Judge orders Pentagon to resume onshore-wind reviews

   STATELINEReadLess

   A federal judge ordered the Defense Department to restart national-security reviews for onshore wind projects after the process slowed beginning in August 2025 and stopped entirely in April.

   The Pentagon reviews proposed turbines during the Federal Aviation Administration process because tall structures can interfere with military radar, training routes and other operations. Developers and the military normally negotiate mitigation rather than treat every conflict as a veto. The industry plaintiffs said the freeze stalled at least 106 verified projects across 21 states—about 29 gigawatts of proposed capacity and $47 billion in investment.

   The order does not approve those wind farms. It requires the Pentagon to resume the case-by-case process so projects can receive conditions, rejection or clearance on the record. Wind currently supplies about 10% of U.S. electricity, so a nationwide review stoppage affects far more capacity than a single permit dispute.