The Brief

The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory may run the second-longest study of  individually identifiable mammals in the world, but they’re not afraid of trying something new.

The lab is launching a bracket-style competition, Fat Marmot Week, for people all over the world to vote for their favorite chunky ground squirrel.

The UCLA researchers who work there have faced a loss of federal funding in recent years, so they’re now pursuing creative fundraising efforts, including a (G-rated) OnlyFans account for marmot content called OnlyMarms and a meme coin created by supporters of the project.

Where the idea came from

Dan Blumstein, a UCLA ecology and evolutionary biology professor who came up with OnlyMarms, said he’s wanted to do a Fat Marmot Week ever since the success of Fat Bear Week, in which the public votes on grizzly bears bulking up for the winter in Alaska. But it took two of his graduate researchers, Katie Adler and Emily Renkey, along with another volunteer who helps with logistics, to see it to fruition.

“ Science isn't just writing the papers, it's also the communication side of things,” said Adler, who’s also the lab’s field team leader.

Like bears, marmots prepare for the winter by fattening up, with some more than doubling in weight from about 5.5 pounds to as much as 13. But unlike bears, marmots are true hibernators. For months, their body temperature drops very low, and they breathe and have a heartbeat about once a minute. (Blumstein described a hibernating marmot as “sort of a fuzzy stone.”)

These two specimens are called Dawn and Dan's Hat.

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Courtesy Dan Blumstein/UCLA

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 Adler, who's on her third year of marmot field observations, said the individual marmots are consistent enough that she can "see what they're doing a little bit and then know exactly who it is."

“I think it’s fun to think of this from an outside perspective – why do we like marmots and how can we share that with other people?” Renkey said.

About the marmots

The marmots are all given names to help tell them apart based on markings the researchers dye on their fur.

Their names range from Dawn, who is reportedly a “a very special boy who enjoys the taste of rocks,” to a “proud mama” named 1 and a “girl boss” with no mate named Open Kite.

“Our parties are quite boring to other people because all we do is talk about the marmots,” Blumstein said. “It's a soap opera.”

Funding troubles

Faced with federal funding cuts, Blumstein realized he had to get creative, starting with the OnlyMarms account.

But he said he wasn’t expecting the “extraordinary” response – the $OnlyMarms meme coin has made more than $100,000 in transaction fees, though it’s still short of the $225,000 to $300,000 they need to fundraise to bring in more graduate student research.

Blumstein said while all funding is welcome, including the OnlyMarms subscriptions, it’s much easier for them to accept direct donations for tax purposes. The money will go to support researchers like Renkey and Adler’s contributions to the nearly 65 years of marmot research at the lab.

The tournament

Eight competitors will face off — five females and three males. There’ll also be a “true” winner announced at the end based on the lab’s measurements on which marmot gained the most weight this spring and summer.

The first round of voting will be Monday, Aug. 24, followed by the semifinals on Wednesday, Aug. 26, and the final showdown on Friday, Aug. 28. Voting runs from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PDT.

“Everyone should vote. It's very exciting,” Renkey said. “They're huge this summer.”

Ellen Allen has mixed feelings about the check from the U.S. Treasury and letter from President Donald Trump that arrived at her house near Charleston, West Virginia, on Monday.

"I just can't believe it; I mean, that's crazy," says Allen, who's the executive director of a small nonprofit called West Virginians for Affordable Health Care. She says, in her opinion, sending out these checks is a "political stunt."

NPR first spoke to Ellen Allen in the summer of 2025. She was 63 years old at the time and knew she needed coverage from Healthcare.gov even as generous federal subsidies for her premiums were ending. She has a serious eye condition and needs expensive drops to preserve her vision. She advocated for the Republican-controlled Congress to extend the subsidies. It didn't. She ended up using retirement savings to pay $1,967 every month for her premiums from January through August 2026.

Then her birthday came; she turned 65 and was eligible for Medicare. "I was ready at midnight — the first day I could apply, I did," she laughs.

A second check on the way?

Allen chose traditional Medicare, which means she could soon be getting another check from the U.S. Treasury. Last week, President Trump announced that $90 checks will be sent to 20 million people enrolled in Medicare.

"The $90 is — I mean, that's just nothing," Allen says. In her work, she talks to people about healthcare costs all over West Virginia. "People aren't going to be fooled by this," she predicts. "People are hurting. People are feeling the cost of healthcare all year long."

"If they wanted to do something meaningful, they would work on affordable healthcare instead of just sending out checks every now and then," Allen says.

Both checks are directed to select groups. The $500 checks mailed by the Trump administration last week were only sent to people who live in one of the 30 states that use Healthcare.gov for their insurance marketplace. They also make more than $64,000 annually for an individual, which is too much money to qualify for subsidies. These are people, like Allen, who were likely to be hard hit when Congress failed to extend the extra financial help put in place under President Joe Biden.

The $90 checks that will be sent to Medicare beneficiaries are only going to certain people enrolled in Medicare Part B. People in Medicare Advantage plans, which are managed by insurance companies, will not get checks.

Can Trump do that?

The checks are hitting people's mailboxes just a few weeks before the midterm elections. The text of a letter sent along with the money touts the Trump administration's efforts on health policy and criticizes the Biden administration.

"This reads like electioneering," says Kathleen Clark, a professor of legal and governmental ethics at Washington University Law School in St. Louis, Mo. "This reads as though it's intended to influence votes. That is prohibited by law."

Specifically, it would violate the Hatch Act, "the statute that prohibits using federal power and money to influence partisan political elections," she explains. It may also be a use of funds that's unauthorized by Congress.

The money for Healthcare.gov enrollees is from fees insurance companies paid to participate in the marketplace, and the money for Medicare beneficiaries is from a general improvement fund. Neither of these funds has been used for direct payments to enrollees before.

"It looks like a pretty desperate effort to, in essence, bribe the recipients of this letter to vote in gratitude to Trump in the upcoming midterm elections," she adds.

An empowered executive branch

The checks and letters are arriving in people's mailboxes, whether they're legal or not. Clark notes the Supreme Court has enabled Trump's illegal actions many times in the past. "So, of course, he feels empowered to go ahead and do this," she says.

The White House did not respond directly to NPR's questions about electioneering, whether the action is a violation of the Hatch Act or if it is a "political stunt," as Allen put it.

"This is an out-of-touch criticism," Trump administration spokeswoman Allison Schuster wrote in an email. "Americans were overcharged for the operation of the Obamacare exchange, and President Trump returned their hard-earned money. This President will never stop enabling Americans to take control of their health by implementing policies that put money back in their pockets."

'Half a tank of gas'

Some Republicans in recent years have advocated for giving more money directly to people rather than to health insurance companies, although the party has yet to settle on a particular approach.

In any case, sending these checks is unrelated to that effort, says Joseph Antos, senior fellow emeritus at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute. There's nothing that requires people to use this money for their health.

"From the perspective of the average senior citizen, when they get a $90 check, it's money," he adds, referencing the forthcoming checks for Medicare beneficiaries. "You can go out to McDonald's and buy probably two hamburgers and a shake for $90 [and] maybe buy a half a tank of gas."

A widening trust gap, poll says 

A few weeks from the midterm elections, voters say they are struggling with health costs and want candidates to address them, according to a poll released Tuesday by the nonprofit health research organization KFF.

"The cost of healthcare is what's going to be front of mind as they're casting their votes in November," says Ashley Kirzinger, director of survey methodology for KFF. "And what we are seeing is that the Democratic Party has the advantage overall among all voters on which party voters trust to handle healthcare, but they also have the advantage among independent voters, and that's a really important voting bloc for midterm elections."

She says there is "a widening gap" between the Democratic Party and Republicans when it comes to which party voters trust to handle health costs. "It was just a 10-point margin back in April, and now we're seeing it to be a 20-point margin," she says. The poll found 22% of voters trust Republicans on the issue, compared to 42% who trust Democrats.

Where's the credit for GOP candidates?

Antos, of AEI, calls the Trump administration's decision to send out these checks "inexplicable." He describes the move as politically strange, since a Republican administration that disparages Obamacare is investing more money into it, and "unreasonable from a fiscal standpoint," because of the growing national debt.

He also notes that most Americans won't be getting these checks. "How about the average, lower-income worker who has employer coverage?" he asks. "They're not getting anything. Why is that? Is that fair?"

He is doubtful the move will have a political benefit for Republican candidates. "For one thing, Trump is not saying that your local congressman did this for you, Trump is saying he did it for you," Antos says. "I don't get it, and I don't see any advantage to anybody, including Donald Trump."

Despite her mixed feelings, Ellen Allen of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care is planning to deposit the $500 check she just received. "I'm not going to send it back," she says. "I'm going to put it in my health savings account and keep working towards healthcare for all."

Copyright 2026 NPR

The U.S. Department of Education has launched an enforcement action against the Los Angeles Unified School District, alleging that its gender policies keep critical information, including students’ gender identities, away from parents.

The department pointed to alleged violations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment.

“Parents are children’s natural providers and protectors,” said Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for civil rights, in a statement. “The Biden-Harris DOJ labeled concerned parents as threats for exercising their right to know what was happening at their kids’ schools. This Civil Rights Division stands with parents, and we will continue to partner with the Department of Education to enforce parents’ rights under federal law.”

LAUSD, meanwhile, has denied any wrongdoing, according to the Los Angeles Times. LAUSD officials said Monday that they were unaware of a new demand or filing by the Trump administration, the Times reported.

In their release, federal officials did not provide details on the nature of their action against the district, according to the Times.

Want to know who’s who in Republican politics? Look no further than the megadonors bankrolling California’s voter ID initiative.

Illinois billionaire packing supply magnate Richard Uihlein, who has poured tens of millions of dollars into conservative causes, has contributed $17 million to the campaign for Proposition 39, a GOP-backed ballot measure to require voters to show a driver’s license or other government ID to vote.

Uihlein’s involvement and that of other deep-pocketed Republican donors is a signal that conservatives view Prop. 39 as a test of support for future battleground states in the broader push by President Donald Trump to tighten voter restrictions.

Uihlein is joined by Southern California businessman Steven Bray, who loaned the campaign more than $3 million and gave $50,000 outright. The right-wing political group Reform California, tech entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and former Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presidential running mate Nicole Shanahan are also major donors. Combined, they have helped the campaign rake in more than $28 million — $11 million more than their opponents a month from Election Day.

Prop. 39’s supporters argue that requiring ID at polling places will ensure California’s elections are secure, and say the mandate is no different from needing an ID to fly on a plane or buy alcohol. Proponents also point out that 36 states request or require voters to show some form of identification at the polls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

California voters currently need a driver’s license and Social Security number to register to vote but not when they cast their ballots. If Prop. 39 passes, voters who mail their ballots would have to write the last four digits of their Social Security or other government-issued number on their ballots.

It’s a long-awaited moment for the state’s weak Republican Party which has fought for decades to put a voter ID measure on the ballot in deep blue California.

Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a Republican, created Reform California and is spearheading the initiative. The freshman San Diego lawmaker’s group funded the ballot operation that collected more than a million signatures to qualify the measure after similar proposals failed in the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

Common Cause and other voting rights groups that oppose the measure fear Prop. 39 would unnecessarily block from voting citizens who can’t find or don’t have a government-issued ID. They argue that this would disproportionately impact, and unfairly penalize, people who recently moved, changed their last name or are low income — and other groups who historically have supported Democrats.

Civil rights advocates also argue the measure is unnecessary because voter fraud is rare.

“You are more likely to be struck by lightning than you are to commit voter fraud in a U.S. election,” California League of Women Voters executive director Jenny Farrell said. “There’s no need to add on these additional burdens and security checkpoints in California.”

Despite numerous studies showing there is no widespread evidence of voter fraud in U.S. elections, Claremont McKenna College political scientist John Pitney said such claims have circulated for decades in far-right circles.

Attempts to constrict voter laws through ballot measures have increased in some states ever since the expansion of voting rights to African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement.

But fears about voter fraud accelerated during the first Trump administration when the president falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen. Shortly after, DeMaio and other GOP lawmakers introduced unsuccessful bills to tighten voter restrictions before he pivoted to orchestrating a citizen-led ballot initiative last year.

“Recently Trump has promoted the idea that large numbers of undocumented people are voting, for which there isn’t any evidence,” Pitney said.

Assemblymember Carl DeMaio announces that supporters of the CA Voter ID Initiative will submit more than 1.3 million signatures to qualify the measure for the November 2026 ballot during a press conference at the west steps of the state Capitol in Sacramento on March 3, 2026. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMattersDemocrats bankrolling the opposition to Prop. 39 are also a who’s who of California politics.

The state Democratic Party is by far the largest contributor at nearly $5.5 million, followed by the Sonoma-area Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria with $2 million.

Longtime Democratic donors Patty Quillin, a film producer and wife of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, and Quinn Delaney, a real estate investor and philanthropist, have each pitched in $1.5 million. Labor heavyweights such as the Service Employees International Union have contributed $1 million.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra and Democratic Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas have created a joint committee to raise money for the No campaign and U.S. Sen Alex Padilla is stumping at events.

Nearly 90% of Californians now vote by mail, according to the secretary of state’s office. That means the vast majority of voters would be required to write their Social Security or driver’s license number on their ballot should the initiative pass.

Many people aren’t going to be comfortable with that, No on 39 campaign spokesperson Tenoch Flores said.

“This is about creating new avenues to reject valid mail ballots,” Flores said.

“Yes on 39” spokesperson Meredith Shields told CalMatters that no one from the campaign could be made available for an interview. DeMaio declined an interview with CalMatters for this story. Uihlein did not respond to phone calls and emails requesting comment.

The biggest donor

Megadonor Uihlein and his wife, founders of the Wisconsin-based packaging company Uline, have poured millions into the Restoration of America PAC, a super PAC that frequently bankrolls Republican candidates in Illinois and Wisconsin. The Uihleins have donated $35 million to the PAC this year alone, and Prop. 39 is the latest target in their effort to fund agenda-setting conservative causes.

Shanahan, an attorney and the former wife of Google executive Sergey Brin, has funneled $370,000 into the Yes campaign, while the Winklevoss brothers have each contributed $250,000.

The interest from the ultra-wealthy in Prop. 39 is a sign that the GOP could be looking to replicate a similar playbook in toss-up states, Sonoma State University political science Professor David McCuan said.

Republican proponents want to see how well or poorly voter ID does in Democratic-heavy California. If it does better than expected, that might mean a similar ballot measure could be fairly popular in more moderate battleground states, such as Michigan,Wisconsin or Pennsylvania.

“There is a spillover effect if you do better than expected, even if you lose,” McCuan said.

Election security becomes about Trump

Several Republican states moved to expand voter restrictions after the 2020 election, including Wyoming, Kentucky and Oklahoma. And while voter sentiment toward Trump is at historic lows, the GOP was surprisingly successful at getting the voter ID measure on the California ballot.

The “Yes on 39” TV campaign has begun airing ads distancing the measure's supporters from Trump, while the No campaign released an ad airing in the Bay Area featuring images of Trump and characterizations of Prop. 39 as a “power grab."

It’ll likely still be a tough road ahead for the Yes campaign. The default position for most voters is “no” on ballot propositions, meaning supporters of the measure will have to persuade enough voters to agree with them.

An April poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies showed Californians broadly support requiring voters to present identification at the polls, but it found that support dipped below 50% when respondents were given specific details about the measure, such as that it’s meant to combat alleged voter fraud. A Public Policy Institute of California poll in September found support for Prop. 39 has dropped to 43%.

While this could be effective at turning out liberal voters, it’s unclear how even a hot-button issue will be enough to get Republicans out in a midterm election cycle with an unpopular president.

“It’s hard to pass a red-coded measure in a blue wave election,” Pitney said.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.