Wednesday, August 26, 2026 Today, a father of a sailor aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln was taken into ICE custody while taking his car into the mechanic; Kennedy Center revenue plunged after Trump put his name on the building; a federal judge has rejected Ghislain Maxwell’s bid to get out of prison; two unvaccinated people have died from measles in Pennsylvania; the Padres catching coordinator detained by ICE has been released on bond; CIA director John Ratcliffe is on a secret trip to Russia; a Trump backed House candidate has removed all mentions of Donald from his website; DHS refuses to release an email justifying ICE entering homes without judicial warrants; actress and icon Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80; plus Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Today, a father of a sailor aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln was taken into ICE custody while taking his car into the mechanic; Kennedy Center revenue plunged after Trump put his name on the building; a federal judge has rejected Ghislain Maxwell’s bid to get out of prison; two unvaccinated people have died from measles in Pennsylvania; the Padres catching coordinator detained by ICE has been released on bond; CIA director John Ratcliffe is on a secret trip to Russia; a Trump backed House candidate has removed all mentions of Donald from his website; DHS refuses to release an email justifying ICE entering homes without judicial warrants; actress and icon Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80; plus Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
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Dolly Parton, country music icon, dies at 80 | NBC News
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MSW Media. Hello, and welcome to The Daily Beans for Wednesday, August 26th, 2026. Today, a father of a sailor aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln was taken into ICE custody while taking his car into the mechanic.
Kennedy Center revenue plunged after Donald Trump put his name on the building. A federal judge has rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's bid to get out of prison. Two unvaccinated people have died from measles in Pennsylvania.
The Padres' kitchen coordinator detained by ICE has been released on bond. CIA Director John Ratcliffe is on a secret trip to Russia. A Trump-backed House candidate has removed all mentions of Donald Trump from his website.
DHS refuses to release an email justifying ICE entering homes without judicial warrants. An actress and icon, Dolly Parton, has died at the age of 80. I'm Allison Gill.
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
Hello, my friend.
What a sad day.
I mean, it just sucks. Like, I'm not even going to be like, they're taking the wrong people.
Dolly Parton is such an icon from literacy to helping us get a fucking vaccine, and I want to mention all the glass that she broke with her own career in music.
I mean, she was just one of the helpers, and I was hoping it was going to be a lot of years in the future, and just, it just sucks. It sucks.
Yeah, NBC is reporting Dolly Parton, who rose from a loving if impoverished upbringing in the mountains of East Tennessee to become the queen of country music, a Hollywood star, and a beloved American icon has died. She was 80.
During her more than 60-year career, Dolly Parton sold over 100 million records. She won 11 Grammys, and she donated over 322 million books through her Imagination Library project that's been going for 31 years now.
And from what I understand, a lot of that was started because her father did not know how to read, and she was gonna make sure that that wasn't the case.
Yeah.
Other sad news, and now we're moving into sort of the national news. This is from NBC. Two unvaccinated people have died of measles in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County.
The state's health department confirmed that on Tuesday. Pennsylvania's Secretary of Health, Dr. Deborah Bogan, declined to give any additional information about the deaths during a media briefing, citing patient confidentiality.
They are the first measles related deaths in the US this year, and the first in Pennsylvania in 35 years. Thanks a lot for telling everyone that vaccinations are dangerous. RFK.
Jr., appreciate you.
All right. We have a lot of news to get to today. So let's hit the hot notes.
All right, everyone. First up from NBC. A judge rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's bid to throw out her conviction in 20-year prison sentence for helping the late financier, I would say sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein, sexually abused teenage girls.
In a decision made public on Tuesday, US District Judge Paul Engelmayer said, Maxwell's claims were all meritless, and all or almost all were frivolous.
Ghislaine Maxwell, who is 64, who represented herself in this habeas petition, challenged her December 2021 conviction and sentence in Manhattan Federal Court, and as I said, sought a writ of habeas corpus declaring her punishment unlawful.
Prosecutors said her latest claims were baseless or filed too late.
Maxwell said many documents disclosed earlier this year through the Epstein Files Transparency Act show that her due process rights were violated because lawyers representing Epstein's accusers served as de facto prosecutors and agents of the
government. But the judge said this supposedly new evidence was largely irrelevant to Maxwell's case. Engelmeier said, Maxwell imposed a culture of silence among the staff at Epstein's multiple homes as the lady of the house.
Engelmeier says she and Epstein used methods commonly used by child predators, and that Maxwell herself participated in these acts.
Engelmeier says, Ghislaine Maxwell has not made a substantial showing of a denial of a constitutional right, an appellate review is not warranted, and any further appeal will not be taken in good faith.
I sure the fuck hope not. This one's from The Post. Ticket sales and fundraising has collapsed after President Donald Trump's name was added to the John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, even as the center's leaders publicly touted a financial turnaround, and that's according to confidential documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Ticket sales had already dropped in the 10 months following Trump's takeover, but both ticket sales and donations plunged after Trump-led board of trustees voted in December to rename the center after him and put his name on the front of the
building. That's according to the records. The documents show that leaders knew both were cratering, even as they publicly portrayed Trump's takeover as a financial rescue.
In a failed June request to keep Trump's name on the building, for instance, a Justice Department lawyer wrote that renaming the center after Trump and I quote, represented a saving of the Kennedy Center, which if this doesn't happen, would go into
financial and structural collapse. Even suggesting in a new filing Monday that without Trump's name and renovation plan, the building and I quote, will be required to be taken down. Fuck all the way off. That's such bullshit.
Just the week before the June filing, by the way, the center's own financial projections showed ticket revenue and fundraising had plummeted after the name change, putting it on track to fall nearly $100 million short of its revenue target.
Which is interesting because that's the number they were saying, the new weird org that they created, the shadow Kennedy Center org. Brought in, brought $100 million member.
Yep, I do, I do.
And now he wants to put his name, he wants to etch his name in the marble façade after being someone who renovated it. So it's not as easy to take down, he wants to etch it in the marble.
All right, next up from CBS, CIA Director John Ratcliffe is in Moscow, Russia for meetings, according to sources familiar with the situation that spoke to CBS News on Tuesday.
News of his trip comes after a US Air Force, following C-17A Globemaster III transport plane was spotted at Moscow Airport along with a US diplomatic motorcade.
Neither the US nor Russian governments has commented on the identity of the US official in Russia or the purpose of the visit. The CIA did not immediately comment. Big surprise there.
But it appears to be Ratcliffe's first known trip to Russia as the CIA Director, though he has maintained contact with Russian intelligence counterparts.
Ahead of Ratcliffe's trip, the US told Ukraine that a senior delegation would be traveling to Moscow and asked it to suspend strikes until the delegation's departure.
Now Ratcliffe's visit comes as recent US intelligence assessments indicate that Putin's risk calculus may be shifting, with the Russian leader potentially increasingly willing to authorize provocative actions against NATO members, including hybrid
Oh, God, what a nightmare.
This one's from the Associated Press. Luis Manuel Aviles was arrested by immigration authorities. His son was entering his ninth month on the USS Abraham Lincoln with the Navy.
A vessel, as we know, that set up a US military record for uninterrupted time at sea, stirring concerns about supply shortages and deteriorating mental health among soldiers.
Luis Manuel Aviles, 48 years old, was arrested after leaving his house to take his car to the mechanic. According to his wife, Argelia Aviles, she said her husband, who is a handyman in Key West, Florida, had a permit to work in the United States.
Originally from Nicaragua, he has lived in the US for 19 years. And they quote, he dedicates himself only to work so he can put food on the table at home. He's a good father.
He loves his children with all his soul. That's what his wife said. She happens to be 47 years old.
Aviles' arrest comes as the Trump administration rolls back immigration protections for military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda, detaining at least dozens of parents and spouses of active duty US troops.
Aviles was released from custody Tuesday after his son spoke out on his behalf. All right, I do have a little bit of better news. This is from The Athletic.
Oswaldo Perella, a San Diego Padres Minor League catching coordinator who was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement a little more than a week ago, was released on Bond Monday.
That's from a family spokesperson, that's what they told The Athletic.
Perella, a 34-year-old native of Venezuela who is seeking political asylum, was traveling home from a work assignment on August 16th when he was detained in El Paso International Airport, his wife and his brother told The Athletic last week.
The resident of Peoria, Arizona, Perella has been in Texas to work with the players at the Padres' AAA affiliate in El Paso. Perella has returned home to his family.
He apparently has a work permit, but wasn't carrying it with him when he was stopped by ICE.
Yeah. So Kavanaugh stop, show us your papers. Totally unconstitutional.
Per SCOTUS. Of course, that was an old SCOTUS ruling.
This is the new SCOTUS.
All right. Next up, this is from me.
On January 21st of this year, the Associated Press broke the news that a whistleblower at the Department of Homeland Security had a memo written by Todd Lyons instructing ICE agents to enter homes without a judicial warrant. You remember this?
The memo from Todd Lyons said, Although the US Department of Homeland Security has not historically relied on administrative warrants alone to arrest aliens subject to final orders of removal in their place of residence, the DHS Office of the General
Council has recently determined that the US Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the immigration regulations do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants for this purpose. So that same day, I filed a Freedom of Information Act
request, January 21st, a request for all Office of General Council records describing or memorializing this determination made by the Department of Homeland Security Office of General Council. We argued in our filing that since the Office of General
Council determination has been officially adopted by DHS and ICE as working law, that any otherwise applicable privilege has accordingly been waived. See, agencies aren't allowed to keep secret legal opinions that they expressly adopt as law.
But by March 29th, DHS had not acknowledged my request, so my lawyer, Kel McClanahan, National Security Counselors filed a lawsuit in federal court in the District of Columbia on my behalf, on behalf of my podcast network.
The case was quickly assigned to Judge Christopher Cooper. That's an Obama appointee.
Today, Dana, I got a response from the Department of Homeland Security, and it turns out there is no Office of General Council memo underpinning the Todd Lyons memo. It was actually just an email written by a guy named Adam Loicano.
That's the Deputy Principal Legal Advisor for Enforcement and Litigation in the Office of Principal Legal Advisor at ICE.
Adam Loicano is the same lawyer, by the way, that wrote the opinion via email legally justifying the questioning of unaccompanied minors at HHS facilities without Miranda warnings.
Now, I'm not sure if he writes these as emails to avoid having to release them, but that shouldn't matter, because as I said, any policy adopted as working law waives the privilege they claim justifies the redactions that you'll see.
Over at muellershewrote.com, when you look at the email they sent me, it's completely redacted, Dana.
Oh my God.
Our next status update is due to Judge Cooper on October 13th. I'll keep you posted.
Keep kicking ass, my friend. This is from NBC. Ralph Alvarado is running with Donald Trump's endorsement in House District in Kentucky that the president carried by double digits in 2024.
But since winning the Republican primary in May, he has removed a series of pro-Trump messages and a photo of them standing together from the campaign website. That's according to NBC News. That's fucking hilarious.
Previously, the homepage of Alvarado's site trumpeted his support for Trump, painting himself as an America first fighter and in state's sixth congressional district.
And I quote, President Trump needs more allies in Congress to deliver on his bold vision to make America great again. With your help, I'll be that fighter. That's what Alvarado, a physician and former state senator wrote on his website.
Remind me to never go to that doctor. Further down, the website displayed a photo of Alvarado and Trump together, with both of them smiling and the president flashing a thumbs up as he does. Tiny little thumbs up.
Alvarado won the GOP primary on May 19th with the seat being vacated by Rep Andy Barr, who's a Republican as he runs for the Senate. But since then, Alvarado's message has shifted.
Where are Alvarado's website used to call him an America First fighter? It now just says he would offer independent leadership for Kentucky, according to an earlier version of the website captured by the Internet Archive.
The caption that promised he deliver on Trump's MAGA vision has been replaced by this paragraph. Healthcare isn't a talking point to me. It's been my life's work.
In Congress, I'll work with both parties to fight for affordable health care, lower costs, and practical solutions that help Kentucky families. The photo of Alvarado and Trump together is also gone, Allison. It's replaced by a shot of just Alvarado.
An earlier biography on the campaign website labeled Alvarado, and I quote, one of the President Trump's earliest supporters, and it touted his 2016 distinction as the only Latino to speak in support of Trump at that year's Republican Convention.
It described Alvarado as a national leader in the America First movement. Now, all five mentions of Trump that used to be on Alvarado's homepage have been deleted.
His revised website makes no reference to the President, or to America First, or to Make America Great Again.
A publicly archived version of Alvarado's website, shows that he still had the mentions and photo with Trump through at least June 9th, after he won the primary, meaning the changes were made after the general election campaign had begun.
Alvarado's campaign didn't return messages seeking comment.
Boy, talk about shifting to a general election from a primary election voter.
My goodness.
Oh, but the Democrats are in disarray, right? Got it. All right, everybody, we have good news that we need to get to and we definitely could use your good news.
Send it all to us, dailybeanspod.com and click on contact. We'll be right back.
After these messages, we'll be right back.
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Experience the new standard in comfort and support with Honey Love. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news.
Who likes good news, everyone?
Please, please, please send all your good news to us.
It can be recent, it can be from 40 years ago, it can be big, it can be small, it can be a shout out to a loved one or yourself or a non-profit you want us to know about, a government program that's helped you or a loved one.
It can be a good trouble recommendation or some good trouble that you're seeing happening where you are, we would love to know about that.
You can send it all to us at dailybeanspod.com and click on contact and all you gotta do to get your stuff on the air is pay your pod pet tariff, which means really just attach a photo of anything.
It can be your pet, obviously we can try to guess what breeds are in your shelter pup, but you can also include an adoptable pet in your area if you don't have a pet or just a random animal off the internet. It's fine with us.
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We have a prolific cross stitcher who sends in her work. Are you painting something? Do you have goats?
Whatever it is, send it to us. dailybeanspod.com, click on contact. First up is your good trouble.
Good trouble. Today, there are 69 days left until the midterms. That's only about two months, y'all.
The voter registration deadlines vary state by state. There are too many individual deadlines to list here, but some states require registration 30 days in advance of an election, and many states do not allow same day voter registration.
Find your state's registration deadline and check your registration status at vote.org. We'll have vote.org, a link in the show notes, to all state official voter registration lookups.
We'll also have voter and election day registration deadlines by state. Make sure that you and make sure that everyone you know is registered to vote. Like send out a list and make people check off a box.
Or have them get their names and look them up on vote.org. Tell them you'll do it for them. But anyway, there's a plan.
Make sure you have a plan and a backup plan to vote, by the way. You can find volunteer opportunities to help others register to vote at a mobilized link that we're going to put in the show notes too. Everybody, it's coming.
It's coming. It's almost here.
Yeah, it is. All right. Next up from anonymous pronoun she and her, Hey Beans Queens, I just wanted to write in to let you know how often you leave me in tears in the morning.
The way you voice your support for the trans community with your whole chest means the world to me and often gives me that little bit of extra armor to get through the day in an increasingly hostile world. I genuinely can't thank you enough.
Attaches my perfect little fuzz but Bruno, our 11 year old 98 pound laying on his throne.
I mean, it's a border collie, I think, but a hundred pound border collie?
You border collie?
Let's see. Yeah, it's a border collie. All right.
What kind of extra special 100 pound border collie genes are you carrying around?
The other thing I love is we can also see that this is a lap dog at 98 pounds, according to that picture with her.
Yes, sitting on her lap.
Oh my God, that's fantastic. Thank you, Anonymous, so much.
Thank you. Next up from Janelle, pronouns she and her. Hello, beautiful Beans Queens and team.
Can't thank you enough for keeping us all sane in this ridiculous timeline we're having to endure.
AG., I've also been rewatching The West Wing just because it makes me feel good to remember both fictional Bartlett and non-fictional Obama and Biden presidents who were, well, presidents.
I had to laugh during today's coverage of the bunker situation because just yesterday, I revisited the episode where President Bartlett repeatedly states that he will not go to the bunker, even though he's under serious threat of harm.
Old yam tits could learn a lot from watching something other than the Fox Stooges. But anywho, for pod bet tax, please enjoy this shot I took from my deck while watching Beans talk. You'll know the creature.
If you can name the bloom, you're better than me. I literally bought it because it was pretty, and I've kept it alive by sheer dumb luck. Thanks again, ladies.
Janelle, that's pretty much how I garden as well, sheer dumb luck. Looks like a praying mantis.
Agreed, and don't know what those flowers are called.
I don't know what the flower is. It's called, according to our producer, it's a mandevilla, aka rock trumpet.
That's what I would be called if I was a flower. I'm a fucking rock trumpet.
That's how I name flowers. It's all mandevilla, and I'm all rock trumpet, foot jacket. You know.
I'd be good at naming birds, though.
Oh, my God. We should start. We should actually just start making up names for flowers that aren't the actual flower, but just what they look like.
All right. Next up from Cindy, pronoun she and her. You two are amazing.
I start. Thank you, Cindy. I start my day with you every day.
As a pseudo correction, Trump campaigned in South Carolina for Darlene because we are still in the middle of a Republican runoff after Lindsey's death, and Darlene promises to be his lap dog.
Yeah, that's right. That's votes are happening in that runoff as we speak today, Tuesday, August 25th.
Yeah, but please don't tell him to stay here. South Carolina is purpler than you think. It's just that all the mainstream talking heads always call us unflippable, and people believe them and think voting won't make a difference.
We have some really stellar candidates this year, though, like Courtney McLean and Annie Andrews. Don't write us off. Podpet Tax is Jack, one of the seven rescue cats.
He's a year old this month and has grown from a very sickly kitten to a healthy cuddle bug. Thank you for all you do and keep us informed and somewhat sane.
Oh, look at this glow up.
Uh-huh.
Kitten with a sock, big beautiful orange cat. Seven, Cindy, seven. How is it?
I have four. I'm getting a lot of pressure to add to my family.
I'm like, I have fours a lot.
Next up from Olivia, pronouns she and her. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I was extremely disturbed by Hawking-Jeffrey's secret meeting with Jared Kushner. That is wholly unacceptable and disqualifying.
We can't make common cause with fascists. We all need to call our democratic congressional reps and demand that they do not vote for HJ for House Speaker. I propose Speaker Jamie Raskin.
Olivia, thank you for that opinion. I know people have different views of this particular thing. Actually, I think most people agree that it was dumb, but a lot of people are like, let's not stir up a bunch of shit right before the midterms.
Right.
But again, his seat is so safe.
It's-
Yeah, but I mean, he put out a video and it was just bad. Hakeem, it was just bad.
I was personally, and again, I can only speak for myself, Dana, but I was personally offended by that video. I felt like I was being condescended to, I felt like I was being scolded. Yep.
Like I'm nine and he asked me for a meeting so I took it.
I'm like, he's not even a fucking elected official.
I shouldn't have to explain myself or whatever. I don't know. I just felt very offended as a, I felt offended as a woman by that.
Yeah.
It was just bad.
I just don't like being talked down to.
I know.
If you have a good reason for the meeting, man, just tell me I'm not nine.
Yeah.
Anyway, I know people have different varying views on this. I respect everyone's views on this. That's just my personal, again, that's my personal opinion and it's only mine.
Yeah.
I agree with you. Except from Drew from Charlotte, pronouncing him, hi, my beautiful Beans Queens.
Back in November 2025, ICE made several arrests and harassed members of the immigrant community in Charlotte, including well-known Latino-owned business called Manolo's Bakery.
Just this past Sunday, ex-Border Patrol commander, quote, I'm a small, big man, little man, Greg Babino, stopped by the bakery to confront Manolo Betancur, owner of the bakery, owner of Manolo's.
It would be wonderful if the Beansverse would support this bakery by following their business on Instagram and visit this Charlotte institution and immigrant-run businesses. If you are in the area, I love this.
By the way, there's a little note, Manolo is a fierce advocate of human rights. He also runs the non-profit By Immigrants Hands and is a subject of a short documentary film called The Change Baker, about his life and advocacy.
Thank you for that note. Thanks for all you both do every day. We're going to have a link in the show notes to this article.
We've got a link to the Instagram for the bakery. It's Manolo's. Well, I'm going to put the link in because I'm going to screw this up with the underscores.
My pet tax is a picture of my sweet old man who crossed the Rainbow Bridge this past March. He was the bestest boy ever and I miss him terribly. Cato was a blank and it looks like a boxer.
It's a boxer something.
It's a boxer something but with a fairly long nose.
Yeah. What do we got?
Cato was a boxer with an Akita slash Pitbull. An Akita.
All right.
Akitas are lovely. All right. Manolo's Bakery.
We'll have the link to the Instagram. We'll have a link to Buy Immigrant Hands. We'll have a link to the article about Manolo's Bakery.
Thanks for shining a light on this incredible local business in Charlotte. Really appreciate it. Next up from Kara.
Oh my God. It's a red panda baby.
Oh my goodness.
From Kara, pronounced she and her. I'm going to hold it together because this cuteness is killing me. Hello to AGDG and all the beans behind the scenes.
I just wanted to send along some screenshots of the baby red pandas at the Smithsonian. Not sure if you all watched New Girl, but if you did, the first thing that popped into my head was a paraphrase of Jess saying, baby panda, baby panda in a cup.
Oh, and yes, one of my low, so many misheard lyrics is your very own theme song. What my ear balls brain heard for way too long was, ooh, let's marry, Daily Beans, Daily Beans. Does that make any sense?
Yes, it does. Although I don't think They Might Be Giants was proposing to me when they made that song for us. No, does it have anything to do with the price of beans?
Nobody, nope, no. But now you've received an extra special glimpse into how my brain works and my ears apparently don't. Love y'all.
Keep up the good work and the good trouble. Thank you, Carol.
Look at these babies.
I know.
On June 11th, this red panda cub was born to parents Kihei and Rocket.
Oh my goodness.
God, he's cute.
Thank you so much. I needed that.
All right. Next up from anonymous pronunciate, she and her, AG and DG. Quick note of thanks for all your hard work.
It is so appreciated. I want to give a huge shout out to an amazing North Carolina school called Wild Abundance. They teach carpentry, tiny house building, and permaculture.
I'm just finished a five-day advanced carpentry workshop after completing basic carpentry in July. It's been a transformative experience. The classes I took were for women, non-binary folks, and led by women, non-binary folks.
It has been empowering and confidence building. I'm so happy I got to learn here. For advanced carpentry, we built a shed from a stack of lumber and blueprints, something I never thought I'd do.
These people are building community one workshop at a time, and teaching us practical skills, we can use our tire lives. Attach us some pics of the structure we built. One day to go, it's not entirely finished.
You can find these by the way at wildabundance.net. This is so cool.
What an awesome idea. Yeah. Oh, look, a shed.
You made a shed. There it is.
It's a she shed.
It's a shed within a shed.
Yeah.
It's a she slash NB.
It's a she they shed.
A she they shed, exactly. That's what it's going to say, she NB, but she they sounds like it too.
Amazing. Thank you all so much. Thank you so much.
I needed to, that little bit of joy on this day, especially with the loss of Dolly Parton. It's just, that's a devastating loss for the country, for everyone, for the world. Yeah.
All right. We're going to be back tomorrow. We're going to go over and record some stuff about ICE on Beans Talk today along with our moxie moment.
So we won't leave you with a bad taste in your mouth after you've done watching the show. Do you have any final thoughts before we get out of here today?
Not today, my friend. Thank you.
All right, everybody, we'll see you tomorrow. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, and take care of your family. I've been AG.
I've been DG.
And them's the Beans.
The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane, with art and web design by Joel Reader with Moxie Design Studios.
Music for The Daily Beans is written and performed by They Might Be Giants, and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator-owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics, and justice.