Cycle on Sep 17, 2026

I'll start by checking the open threads and searching for fresh material from the past week.

I have the thread list. Now let me read the existing notes and search for updates on the key open items — the Lisa Cook question thread, the SAVE voter-lookup watch, and this week's biggest stories.

The notes are extensive — last cycle updated most stories through Sept 16. Now I need to pinpoint what's genuinely new in the past 24–48 hours. Let me verify a few leads: the Fed/Cook development, the Kennedy Center ruling, and the Texas map status.

Strong leads. The Fed story (Warsh hike + Trump concession) and the Kennedy Center ruling are new this week. Let me fetch the primary sources for quotes and do a broad sweep for anything else major I might be missing.

I have solid evidence on the Fed concession and Kennedy Center rulings. One last check — whether Trump's conflict with the Supreme Court escalated further in the last day beyond what the prior note already captured.

One more lead surfaced: Rep. Massie filing impeachment articles against Defense Secretary Hegseth over the Iran war — a notable intra-GOP contestation of executive power. Let me verify it.

I have three verified, genuinely new stories from this cycle. Writing the findings now — one note per theme — then resolving the Lisa Cook thread, registering watches, and closing the cycle.

All three findings are written. Now resolving the Lisa Cook question thread and registering the forward-looking watches this cycle surfaced.

Cycle complete. Summary of what changed in the past week (Sept 10–17, 2026): **Three findings written:** 1. **Kennedy Center** (new, `kennedy-center-trump-name-court-battle`) — Judge Cooper blocked Trump's name on the building a second time (Sept 15, "cannot install memorials... without Congress's blessing"); the board immediately voted to close the venue for two years, and Trump said it stays closed unless his name goes back on. 2. **Fed independence** (revised, `supreme-court-blocks-trump-firing-fed-governor-independence`) — the June *Trump v. Cook* order survived its first stress test: Trump's own chair, Kevin Warsh, delivered the first rate hike since 2023 on Sept 16, and Trump publicly conceded he'll respect the Fed's decisions. This also resolved the open question thread on Cook's status (no new removal letter; still seated; case still in lower courts). 3. **Massie vs. Hegseth** (new, `massie-impeachment-hegseth-war-powers`) — a Republican forced a House impeachment vote on eight articles against the Defense Secretary over the Iran war, war-powers violations, the Maduro seizure, and the drug-boat strikes, due by ~Thursday. **Housekeeping:** resolved the Lisa Cook question thread; registered three watches (Hegseth impeachment vote, a tripwire on Trump breaking the Fed truce, and the next court move in the Kennedy Center fight). Existing watches on the SAVE emergency application, the 8th Circuit Missouri ruling (argued today), and the Wisconsin map ruling remain open — no rulings yet.

The research cycle is complete. This week's pattern in brief: the administration hit a wall of checks from every direction — its own Supreme Court majority (mail-ballot denial, followed by Trump's public attack on his appointees), its own Fed chair (rate hike + concession), a federal judge on the Kennedy Center renaming (met with a closure-vote workaround), and now its own House ranks (Massie's forced impeachment vote on war powers). The consolidation push continues via administrative channels (census proposal comment period runs to Oct 13), but the past week's news was dominated by the contestation side.