States Struggle With Fluoride Crisis Thanks to Trump’s Iran War

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has caused a domestic fluoride shortage, in yet another unintended consequence of a useless and unpopular conflict.

The Associated Press has reported that various U.S. water utility companies across the country have struggled to obtain fluoride because Israel is one of the top providers of fluorosilicic acid. With Israel sending more people into military service, amid attacks on Lebanon, Iran, and Gaza, that supply chain has been disrupted

This has led to “decreased production, and supply shortages for the U.S. market,” Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies officer Dan Hartnett told the AP. Water facilities in Maryland and Pennsylvania have been hit particularly hard, with WSSC Water in Maryland lowering the amount of fluoride in the water from the recommended 0.7 milligrams per liter to just 0.4 milligrams.

Adding fluoride to drinking water has been one of the most effective public health measures in reducing tooth decay. What’s happening now shows the widespread ripple effects that this war is having. From the death and destruction in Lebanon and Iran to high prices at the gas pump, to no more fluoride in some of the water, to even fishermen in the Philippines struggling to get by due to fuel price spikes, this war has permeated through all facets of life around the world—and that will only worsen given the current state of things.

The Trump administration is continuing to punish immigration judges who impede its deportation agenda.

Judge Roopal Patel ruled in January that the administration did not have sufficient evidence to deport Rümeysa Öztürk, a Ph.D. student studying at Tufts University on an F-1 student visa. On Friday, Patel received a pink slip, formally pushing her out of the federal judiciary.  

Patel told The Boston Globe that she was not sure if her ruling in Öztürk’s case had affected her tenure. 

The White House has made it all too clear that immigration is a top priority for Donald Trump’s second-term legacy. Under ex–Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Justice Department massively shifted its resources toward arresting and prosecuting noncriminal immigrants, dropping tens of thousands of criminal probes in the process.

Immigration court is the final step of that process before the Trump administration can legally thrust the people out of the country, though the admin has not seemed to understand the limitations of the law. Instead, the DOJ has attempted to ram cases through the system in an attempt to meet the White House’s demands, placing an enormous and unusual burden on America’s judges.

“It was a pressure I at least tried to actively resist,” Patel told The New York Times. “All people in the United States are entitled to due process, and everyone deserves to have their cases adjudicated fully and fairly.”

But Patel was not the only judge suddenly ousted from their job on Friday. Six federal judges were fired at the end of last week, a U.S. official confirmed to the Times. Four of those were probationary discharges, according to the official. 

One of the other immigration judges dismissed on Friday was Nina Froes, a Massachusetts judge who oversaw the government’s case against Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student leader at Columbia University and green card holder who protested against Israel’s war on Gaza.

Froes ultimately ruled against Mahdawi’s deportation last April, despite an aggressive pressure campaign fronted by State Secretary Marco Rubio to push the West Bank refugee out of the country. Rubio at one point argued that Mahdawi’s presence in the U.S. could “potentially undermine” U.S. foreign policy.

Froes was similarly unsure if her ruling in the Mahdawi case had affected her job stability.

“I don’t know what’s in the minds of other people,” she told the Times. “But I can’t imagine it was helpful.”

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins appeared clueless Monday about the closures of forest research facilities she directed. 

During a press conference at Michigan State University, a reporter asked Rollins whether the U.S. Forest Service offices would close in the state, as part of a so-called “commonsense” restructuring that would result in the mass closure of 57 regional offices across the country. 

“I don’t have those talking points in front of me, but let me tell you this: the misinformation in the media,” Rollins said. “There is no closing of the Forest Service. We are moving it out of Washington, D.C. We are re-headquartering it in Salt Lake City, where it can be closer to the forests that it actually serves, and the people that those forests serve, most importantly.”

Rollins claimed it made no sense to have “thousands upon thousands” of USDA employees based in Washington, but made no mention of the dozens of regional facilities she was planning to shutter.

Another reporter pressed Rollins about whether USDA employees in the Upper Peninsula would be potentially reassigned to the East Coast. The U.P. is home to two national forests, the Ottawa and Hiawatha National Forests, that account for nearly two million acres of land. 

“That’s incorrect. There is no one in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that’s getting reassigned to the East Coast,” Rollins said. 

“There is an office that’s closing in Houghton, Michigan,” the reporter said.   

“So, any offices that are closing, I don’t have that one in front of me, but any offices that are closing, it’s usually because they are, the rent is way too high, and there is so much work that needs to be done,” Rollins said.

But in Houghton, rent has nothing to do with the closure.

“This particular facility is paid for,” MTU College of Forestry Professor Evan Kane told TV6 Upper Michigan Source. “We rent the land from Michigan Tech for a dollar a year. It doesn’t cost the forest service very much in comparison to some of the other units that did get shuttered.”

That’s not the only part of Rollins’s logic that doesn’t add up. If the Trump administration wants the Forest Service to go where there’s a forest, why wouldn’t Rollins relocate to Alaska, which has approximately 21.9 million acres of forest, the most of any state? Or how about California, which has the highest number of individual forests? Or why don’t they keep a number of research facilities in forests across the country instead of cutting short years of research to consolidate thousands of workers to a single site in Colorado?  

Steve Lenkart, executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees, has alleged that the dramatic reshuffling was actually illegal because congressional funding for the fiscal year 2026 included a stipulation that funds could not be put toward relocating offices or employees, or reorganization.

Ramsey County, Minnesota, is investigating ICE agents over the alleged kidnapping of an American citizen in January. 

Federal agents broke down the door of ChongLy “Scott” Thao, a Hmong American, without a warrant and then arrested him in his underwear, forcing him to walk outside in the freezing St. Paul streets with just a blanket. The incident was captured on video, with neighbors shouting at several armed agents as protesters gathered at the scene with horns and whistles.

ICE released Thao after a couple of hours in custody, determining that he was an U.S. citizen with no criminal record. DHS later claimed they were looking for two convicted sex offenders, although Thao told the AP he had not seen the two men before and that they didn’t live with him.

In a news conference Monday, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi and Sheriff Bob Fletcher said that they are seeking evidence from the Department of Homeland Security over Thao’s arrest.

“There are many facts we don’t know yet, but there’s one that we do know. And that is that Mr. Thao is and has been an American citizen. There’s not a dispute over that,” Fletcher said. “There’s no dispute that he was taken out of his house, forcibly taken out of his home and driven around.”

The goal of the investigation, Choi said, is to find out if ICE agents committed crimes that they could be prosecuted under state or federal law, adding, “This is not about any type of predetermined agenda other than to seek the truth and to investigate the facts.”

Hennepin County, where Minneapolis is located, announced last month that they were looking into 17 instances of “potential unlawful behavior” conducted by former Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino and other federal agents during Operation Metro Surge, including the use of chemical agents and attacks on local residents. 

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in March that “I want to be clear with our community about the challenges these investigations entail, because the federal government has refused to provide us information about the actions of their officers in Minnesota.”  

The DHS has refused to provide information to Minnesota’s state and local officials regarding the most egregious offenses in the operation: the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. In March, the state joined Hennepin County in a lawsuit against the Trump administration over their lack of cooperation. The Trump administration won’t take kindly to Ramsey County’s efforts, either. 

President Trump took time out of a busy day playing golf at Mar-a-Lago Sunday afternoon to ogle at a married woman.

Trump stopped the golf cart he was driving with his grandson, Donald Trump III, to stop and greet golf content creator and MAGA supporter Nina Coates, who was jumping up and down out of excitement.

“She’s in great shape, great shape, look at her,” the president said. “You want a picture? Come on over here,” Trump said, adjusting his pants and pulling her in close. “Is she in good shape or what?”

“This is how people (Trump) treat you if you keep staying in shape,” the video is captioned.

A second clip of the interaction showed Trump still with Coates—holding her hand—while other golfers and club members surrounded them. “Is that your husband?” he asked her, pointing directly at the camera.

“Yes, sir,” the man behind the camera replied.

It’s hard to brush this off as just some wholesome interaction, especially knowing what we know about the president—from his harassment of beauty pageant contestants to his friendship with perhaps the most infamous sexual predator of the modern era, Jeffrey Epstein. And even worse, he’s driving around in sunny Mar-a-Lago golfing while people home and abroad suffer because of the decisions he made.