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When the innocent “canoe guy” was hauled off to jail in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool vandalism case, it didn’t take long before he had a legal team.
David Hearn wasn’t rich, but because he was targeted by the Trump administration, Democracy Defenders Fund came to the rescue.
We hear a lot about how big-time law firms have caved to the Trump administration, but this was the opposite.
This was a group of lawyers standing up to Trump in defense of justice and democracy.
Democracy Defenders Fund was co-founded in 2023 by Ambassador Norman L. Eisen and diplomat and nonprofit leader Susan Corke.
“We go to court when government officials abuse their authority or violate the Constitution. Our team represents individuals and organizations challenging unlawful government actions, defends the independence of our institutions, and fights to ensure that no one — not even the president — is above the law,” it says on its website.
It’s good to know they exist.
It’s good to know that regular people like David Hearn have someone to turn to when the president of the United State says you should be locked up for 10 years for sticking your hand into the water.
Their website says they brought together “an all-star leadership team with decades of high-stakes experience to fight autocracy, protect the Constitution, and safeguard American democracy.”
It describes itself as the most effective restraint on the Trump administration’s abuses of power.
They included these accomplishments:
In Barbara v. Trump, we and our co-counsel prevailed at the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark case that struck down President Trump’s illegal executive order and protected the birthright citizenship of 250,000 babies.
In Cook v. Trump, we prevailed at the Supreme Court again, blocking the president’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook without cause, a ruling that preserves the independence of the Federal Reserve.
We secured eight injunctions blocking unlawful mass firings. We stopped the Trump administration’s attempt to dismantle AmeriCorps and Voice of America. We protected hundreds of thousands of federal workers from unlawful termination during the 2025 government shutdown. Our legal work contributed to the ouster of illegally appointed U.S. attorneys, including Alina Habba, Trump’s former personal attorney. And we developed the legal theory that courts relied on to halt the politically motivated prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
But for me, it was inspirational to see lawyers standing up for someone like Hearn and quickly get his name cleared.
“Trump is mad at (U.S. Attorney Jeanine) Pirro because she finally admitted what we made clear in our legal filings all along: Trump’s botched renovation was responsible for the damage, not Davey Hearn,” said Eisen after charges were dropped against Hearn.
I’m not planning on getting in any trouble, but I might just put their number in my phone.
Reader Judith Tully recently commented on the Ttown of Queensbury’s failure to act on an Ethics Board ruling:
I agree, the Queensbury Town Board needs to be replaced. The determination of the Queensbury Ethics Board and the concerned town residents have been completely ignored for the past eighteen months. Councilman Tim McNulty who “represents” Ward 4, is also the chairman of the Warren Country Republicans . If you have had the opportunity to attend a town board meeting, it is obvious how this is an issue. Anthony Metivier, Scott Gushlaw and Rachel Hajos are influenced by how McNulty votes. It is impossible to serve two masters; a councilman cannot represent all the people in his / her ward without being nonpartisan. This election, you have a choice: Paul Derby:Ward 1, Michael Toney:Ward 2, Krystle Sweetser: Ward 3 and Dawn Bleyenburg: Ward 4 are more than qualified to take their places. Our town needs people who will represent the residents without ignoring their concerns.
- Judith Tully
I’d love to hear from other readers on this issue.
I had one of those brain farts the other day when writing about the Town of Queensbury’s ethics problem.
Instead of writing the name of Queensbury Councilman Anthony Metivier, I wrote congressional candidate Anthony Constantino.
Several readers thought that might be more interesting to see Constantino on the Queensbury Town Board.
So the other board members do not feel slighted, I’ll reiterate that Tim McNulty, Scott Rushlaw, Rachel Hajos and Anthony Metivier should all be voted out of office.
The Associated Press did an important story this past weekend that I have not seen anywhere else before.
Nearly 700 service members have been hurt by drone and missile attacks on bases in the Middle East since the beginning of the Iran war, suffering injuries the Pentagon has classified as “minor concussions.”
“Concussions often are termed `mild’ TBIs, and many people recover within weeks,” the AP wrote. “But sometimes those with seemingly mild initial symptoms go on to have problems persisting for months or years, such as headaches, dizziness or difficulties with memory or attention that’s sometimes called `brain fog.’”
Doctors have no way to predict the lasting effect of these injuries, but in many cases it could be long-term. These injuries are often compared with blows that boxers or football players get.
Ultimately, it means the cost of war is never just “minor.”
Warren County continues to do a great job reporting the economic metrics for regional businesses.
The latest report shows some ups and downs.
Sales tax receipts are higher this summer - so are costs - for the second quarter of 2026, but occupancy tax receipts (motels and hotels) are behind last year’s pace (Maybe the boycott by Canadian travelers has something to do with that).
Unemployment was up for June and the housing market had fewer sales while inventory increased.
ProPublica did an in-depth look at measles outbreaks around the country.
It pointed out that, before there was a vaccine, some babies were born blind, deaf and with intellectual disabilities because mothers caught rubella, known as German measles, in the early weeks of pregnancy.
ProPublica wrote that “measles, among the most contagious diseases in history, is almost always the first vaccine-preventable disease to strike when immunization rates fall.”
That is what we are seeing now.
ProPublica reported that measles is “like the bright dye that plumbers flush through pipes to find leaks in a complex system. The continued appearance of the virus’ telltale rash in state after state since last year warns of cracks in our once-solid protection, leaving communities vulnerable to other deadly contagions.”
The story points out that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is considering changes to a government program that could force vaccine makers out of the U.S. market and make it difficult for parents who want the vaccines to get them.
Another sign that our health care is going backward.
The Associated Press reported this week that the United States experienced its hottest month EVER in July.
The average temperature was 76.89 degrees across the continental United States, topping the Dust Bowl temperatures from July 1936. Records have been kept since 1895.
“It’s not good when you’re breaking records from the Dust Bowl, which we are in this case,” said meteorologist Jeff Masters of Yale Climate Connections. “And that was a crazy sort of situation where you put tens of millions of people in motion. You had this great migration because of the drought and the heat that hit the center of the U.S. — just a cataclysmic event in U. S. history. If we’re exceeding records from The Dust Bowl, that says that we’re in deep trouble.”
The good news was that it was unusually cool in Alaska, but that was topped by hotter-than-normal temperatures in the Lower 48 states.
“The heat was so widespread that every one of the Lower 48 states was at least 1 degree Fahrenheit (nearly 0.6 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 20th century average,” said Russ Vose, chief of monitoring at NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information to the AP.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and his play “The Last American Newspaper” is being produced by Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany Sept. 25 to Oct. 18 . He currently lives in both Queensbury, N.Y. and New Orleans, La.
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