UCAR v. NSF

Universities fight back to save NCAR; also: Markwayne has a bad day, Illinois primary results, the Gray Lady in denial, again

Author

Brad Johnson
March 18, 2026

PRESENTED BY CHIFFCHAFFING

A paid subscriber told me I don’t ask for subscribers to pay for this work enough, so here goes: chip in today so that there isn’t anything behind a paywall! (One of the questionable perks of being a paid subscriber is the opportunity for a one-on-one conversation with yours truly.)

NCAR sunrise 2005 credit Jon Hurd

NCAR at sunrise, 2005. Credit: Jon Hurd

The universities that oversee NCAR are finally fighting back against Trump’s retaliatory disintegration of the Boulder, Colo.-based climate research institute.

In a lawsuit filed Monday, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) accused the Trump White House of using the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of a broader campaign to inflict “unlawful retaliation” against the Colorado state government.

The suit cites the ongoing case Colorado v. Trump, over the Trump administration’s blockage of SNAP food benefits for the state. The judge in that case agreed the Trump regime’s administrative actions against Colorado are tied to Trump’s petulant efforts to overturn Colorado’s conviction of county clerk Tina Peters, who conspired to overturn the 2020 election.

The lawsuit, filed by the boutique California litigation firm Hueston Hennigan on behalf of UCAR, notes a “cascading series of retaliatory measures” against UCAR and NCAR, including “gag orders”:

Since then, the Agencies have taken concrete retaliatory actions targeting UCAR and NCAR across multiple fronts. The cascading series of retaliatory measures has included:

  • NSF’s decision to divest UCAR of its stewardship of the NCARWyoming Supercomputing Center (“NWSC”) that UCAR built, financed with tax-exempt bonds, and has operated since 2012;

  • NOAA’s termination of a multi-million-dollar cooperative agreement with UCAR designed to fund climate adaptation and mitigation research;

  • NSF’s use of disparate and undue reporting requirements calculated to saddle UCAR and NCAR with pointless bureaucratic burdens; and

  • NSF’s imposition of gag orders that unconstitutionally restrain the speech of UCAR and NCAR officials to prevent them from communicating with the public and their employees.

The defendants named for their “series of ongoing unconstitutional, arbitrary, and capricious actions” are the National Science Foundation, acting NSF director Brian Stone, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA director Neil Jacobs, the White House Office of Management and Budget, and OMB director Russ Vought.

I’ve been chiffchaffed! It is officially spring. Not the cleanest shot but I like how floofy they look.

The House Natural Resources’ Federal Lands subcommittee heard testimony on a suite of bills this morning, including a proposal to expand Mammoth Cave National Park (H.R. 3286). The subcommittee chair, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wisc.), doesn’t want to pay the Nature Conservancy for the Mammoth Cave land. Although it was not the subject of any testimony, another bill attached to the hearing would enlarge the Customs and Border Patrol training complex in Harpers Ferry (H.R. 6062).

CBP’s tin-soldier martinet Greg Bovino has been deposed in the wake of his deadly Minnesota siege. His core crew of lawless, violent, masked CBP-Gestapo agents remains. A joint investigation by Evident Media, Bellingcat, and CalMatters looks at Bovino’s agents of chaos: Timothy Donahue, Georgy Simeon, Kristopher Hewson (C-29), Michael Sveum (EZ-2), and Edgar Vazquez (EZ-17). All have been subjects of earlier reporting, but it’s stunning to see it put together:

Speaking of which, it turns out that Homeland Security chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.) doesn’t agree with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.)—Trump’s nominee to replace the deposed Kristi Noem as DHS Secretary—that the violent caning of abolitionist Sen. Charles Sumner was a good idea. Maybe this nomination isn’t getting fast-tracked after all.

MARKWAYNE MULLIN: Dueling with two consenting adults is still there RAND PAUL: It's been illegal for 170 years! There's no precedent for legal dueling

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com)2026-03-18T14:10:26.334Z

The State Department no longer has any oil and gas experts, having fired them last July as part of the DOGE reduction-in-force chainsaw.

The New York Times is on a real climate-denier kick lately, airing climate activist Rebecca Solnit’s podcast interview with propaganda ads from the American Petroleum Institute, bending over backwards to avoid explaining that climate pollution is responsible for our increasingly extreme weather, and printing the gobsmacking “It’s not clear how climate change will affect Colorado yet.” I’m guessing A.G. has installed a new climate-denier editor from an outlet like Politico or the Daily Caller to screw up the work of their climate team. If you happen to know, my DMs are open.

The Illinois primaries are over, after an absolute onslaught of AIPAC-AI PAC money. In a race marked by corporate overspending and bad blood between Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Congressional Black Caucus, Lt. Gov. Julianna Stratton won the Senate primary to succeed Senate whip Dick Durbin. In the House primaries, candidates supported by the Sunrise Movement lost all of their bids, though they did succeed in forcing billionaires to burn tremendous piles of cash. AIPAC-backed Donna Miller overcame AI PAC-backed Jesse Jackson Jr. and Sunrise-endorsed Robert Peters in the 2nd; AIPAC/AI PAC-backed Melissa Bean beat Sunrise-backed Junaid Ahmed in the 8th; and Evanston mayor Daniel Biss defeated Sunrise-endorsed Kat Abugazaleh and AIPAC candidate Laura Fine in the 9th.

Hearings on the Hill:

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