What happened
Department of Homeland Security agents yesterday raided the Washington, D.C., house of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a frequent verbal target of President Donald Trump and other Republicans. “Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant” as “part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation,” The Justice Department said, offering no details. Omar on social media called the search an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.”

Who said what
Trump and other top administration officials have “repeatedly referred in recent months” to an immigration-related inquiry into Omar, a Somali-born naturalized citizen, The Associated Press said. She has repeatedly denied unsubstantiated allegations of immigration fraud. Congressional Democrats “swiftly condemned” the raid and questioned its “timing, given longstanding Justice Department protocol to avoid overt investigative steps involving political candidates in the direct run-up to an election.” 

Attorney General Todd Blanche “signed off on carrying out the warrant,” The Washington Post said, citing an official. It was the “subject of significant back and forth between prosecutors and the federal judge who eventually approved it,” The New York Times said. “I have nothing to do with it,” Trump told reporters yesterday.

What next?
The “scope of the investigation was unclear,” as are its “next steps,” the AP said. But Omar’s Minneapolis district is “deep blue and she’s in little actual peril on Nov. 3.”

What happened
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes yesterday told government lawyers she was “furious” and “beyond disappointed” with the Trump administration for cutting down about 430 trees at the historic East Potomac Golf Course over the holiday weekend with little notice. Reyes said she had “trusted” the government “not to do precisely what you have done,” and the irreversible damage to the course violated an understanding she had with Justice Department lawyers in a lawsuit filed by preservationists trying to halt renovation plans. 

Who said what
President Donald Trump “has repeatedly touted his designs for the golf course, one of several Washington-area projects” he has “shown granular interest in executing,” Politico said. After a “blistering 15-minute” opening excoriation, The Associated Press said, Reyes “ordered the government to get various participants in the decision-making process into the hearing remotely.” When Justice Department lawyer Marissa Piropato said the tree removals were “not a renovation,” Reyes called that “preposterous” and “doublespeak,” as there was “zero ambiguity” at the National Park Service over the “concern about cutting down trees.” 

What next?
Reyes barred any further tree-felling at the course until at least 2 p.m today while the government tries to locate a key official involved in the plan. She said she could extend that to 14 days if needed, and if her order is violated “by 2 seconds, there are going to be contempt proceedings.” 

Warming temperatures are hindering the ability of the world’s oldest trees, California redwoods, to perform essential functions. Redwood leaves “exhibit significant decreases in photosynthesis and carbon uptake” at higher temperatures, said a study published in the journal JGR Biogeosciences. 

Leaves contain pores called stomata, which take carbon dioxide in and let water out. When the stomata are open, the tree is “breathing” and photosynthesizing. When they’re closed, the tree is conserving water but not photosynthesizing. When it’s hot, stomata tend to open to release water, essentially sweating.

However, during heat waves, “coast redwoods hit a point where they can’t cool down fast enough, and they just keep their stomata closed,” said Vox. It conserves water, but it also means the “tree isn’t taking in more carbon,” therefore not “‘eating’ or building up energy stores it can use to keep growing.” Redwoods, accustomed to temperatures of 59 degrees Fahrenheit, are now facing temperatures topping 86 degrees.

Slowed photosynthesis could have a “big impact” on redwood forests, “creating a vicious cycle where trees don’t have enough carbon stored to replenish their leaves in the future,” said Vox. There could be larger environmental implications too, as redwood forests “store more carbon dioxide per acre than any other forest in the world.”

Heat waves also “burn off the coastal fog that redwoods depend on for much of their water,” the University of California, Davis, said in a release about the study. This research is an “important start” for figuring out what “parts of the redwood range are at risk” and “trying to intervene,” said study author Lily Klinek.