DEPARTMENT OF EDICASHUN: The Supreme Court ruled that President Trump can continue to dismantle the Department of Education, firing employees without congressional approval.

  As usual these days, it was a 6-3 decision with the court’s three liberals in dissent. Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a scathing opinion called the ruling “indefensible” and a major expansion of presidential power. “When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it,” Sotomayor wrote.

  The Education Department has already been reduced to about half the 4,000 employees it had when Trump took office. Completely eliminating the department would have to go through Congress, but Trump now has the power to eradicate it all but in name.

  The Education Department distributes money to college students through grants and loans. It also sends money to K-12 schools, primarily for the benefit of low-income and disabled students, while enforcing anti-discrimination laws. It does not control curriculum. But the department has become a right wing-target of “wokeism” and Trump wants to send its functions to the states.

  Trump said on his Truth Social that, “The Federal Government has been running our Education System into the ground, but we are going to turn it all around by giving the Power back to the PEOPLE.”

  In classic Trump duplicity, the administration is reducing the federal government’s role in schooling while using its power to attempt controlling curriculum, staffing, political leanings and the administration of universities. 

  Following a similar Supreme Court ruling last week allowing mass firings in the federal government, the Department of Health and Human Services sent out additional firing notices yesterday. 

  Also yesterday, a coalition of 24 states and the District of Columbia sued over $6.8 billion in education funding that the administration has withheld.  That money is about 14 percent of all federal funding for elementary and secondary education in the country. 

THE WAR ROOM: Frustrated and unable to end the Ukraine war in a day … let alone in six months … President Trump announced that he would help Europe rush more weapons to Ukraine and warned that if Russia does not agree to a peace deal within 50 days, he will impose a new round of punishing sanctions. 

  Trump, for the moment, has taken a 180-degree turn on his relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.  “He’s fooled a lot of people,” Trump said. Most of all, he’s fooled Donald Trump, who thought he could easily talk Putin into a peace deal. 

  But, of course, Trump said, “He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden — he didn’t fool me.” 

  Trump said that artillery would be “quickly distributed to the battlefield,” in a deal brokered with European leaders. The United States would sell Patriot air defense missiles to NATO members, which would then move them on to Ukraine.

  Always taking credit, but never blame, Trump said, “I do want to make one statement again. I said it before. This is not Trump’s war.”

ICE, ICE BABY:  The Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that millions of illegal immigrants  held in custody are no longer eligible for a bond hearing as they fight deportation proceedings, The Washington Post reports. Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, told officers that such immigrants should be detained “for the duration of their removal proceedings,” which can take months or years.

FALL RIVER FIRE: Nine people died early yesterday in an assisted living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, just across the Taunton River from Rhode Island. A lot of the residents were not able to get out on their own. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said, “Many were in wheelchairs, many were immobile, many had oxygen tanks.”

  The initial theory is that it was an electrical fire. Thirty people, including five firefighters, were taken to hospitals. Two residents told the Associated Press that the staff fled the facility without telling residents the place was on fire.

AUTO DRIVE: The first jury trial involving the fatal crash of a Tesla car on autopilot opened yesterday in South Florida.

  The case stems from the 2019 crash of a Tesla Model S sedan at night on a two-lane road with Autopilot engaged. According to reports, the driver dropped his cellphone, bent to look for it, and the car crashed into a parked sport-utility vehicle, killing one pedestrian and seriously injuring another.

  Tesla argues that the company is not to blame because the driver put his foot on the accelerator, overriding the cruise control component of Autopilot, which is designed to brake for obstacles or other vehicles.

THE OBIT PAGE: Martin Cruz Smith, who took his readers behind the Soviet era iron curtain with his 1981 bestseller “Gorky Park,” died earlier this month at a senior-living community in San Rafael, California. He was 82.

  “Gorky Park,” became the foundation for a long-running book series about the canny Russian detective, Arkady Renko.

  Before his breakout book, Smith had spent years churning out paperback westerns, thrillers, and suspense novels, written under pseudonyms. There were times, he said, when he could “only be accurately described as a schlockmeister.”

THE SPIN RACK:  The number of people missing following the Texas floods has dropped below 100 from a high of 173. Gov. Greg Abbott said the number might even be lower than the current 97. This morning, 132 people are listed as dead. — New York and New Jersey were hit with flash flooding yesterday under heavy rains. Subway tunnels were flooded. In New Jersey, streets became rivers and cars washed away.

BELOW THE FOLD:  A large bull moose has been blocking the Goodman Mountain trail in New York’s Adirondacks for more than a month. A male moose can be up to 1400 pounds and aggressive when approached. Environmental conservation staff say it’s unusual for a moose to stay in one place like this and he might be ill. But for now, find another trail to hike.

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