Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) sent messages to all members of Congress terminating their positions, stating “Your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment.” All Democratic and independent members of Congress, as well as two Republicans, found themselves locked out of their offices after everything inside had been confiscated.   read more

Congress is pushing the Agriculture Dept to exempt the groups behind promotional campaigns from public scrutiny of their internal operations despite recent controversy. The push comes after organizations representing eggs, pork, potatoes and even Christmas trees pressed for an exception from the federal Freedom of Information Act for programs that promote agricultural products. A provision supporting their push was part of spending legislation approved by a House panel last month.   read more

The study estimates more than 250,000 Americans die each year from medical errors. That would rank just behind heart disease and cancer, which each took about 600,000 lives in 2014, and in front of respiratory disease, which caused about 150,000 deaths. Medical mistakes that can lead to death range from surgical complications to medication mix-ups. However, the system used to record death data doesn’t capture things like diagnostic errors and poor judgment that cost lives.   read more

The Isle de Jean Charles resettlement plan is one of the first programs of its kind in the world, a test of how to respond to climate change in the most dramatic circumstances without tearing communities apart. Under the terms of the grant, the island’s residents are to be resettled to drier land and a community that as of now does not exist. “We see this as setting a precedent for the rest of the country, the rest of the world,” said Marion McFadden, who is running the program at the HUD.   read more

Wall Street has figured out a way to squeeze some extra income from these stocks. And German taxpayers pay for it. A spokesman for the German finance ministry called the transactions “illegitimate because their sole purpose is to avoid the legal taxation of dividends.” “Everybody and their brother was doing it in the U.S.,” said Elise Bean, who as subcommittee chief counsel helped lead the Senate’s investigation in 2008. “And I guess now everybody and their brother is doing it abroad.”   read more

Reports found that 81% of the reef near the dredging site was buried in sediment, causing 93% partial coral death. Environmentalists have warned Congress and the state that the corps’ plan to lessen the damage to corals in that area is flawed. Coral reefs are critical to South Florida because they help lessen the damage from hurricanes, are crucial to marine biodiversity and lure tourists.   read more

Gov. Deal has received hundreds of letters, emails and calls. Most appear to lean toward him signing the bill, though sprinkled in among the appeals were notes from students and faculty members who objected to the legislation. "If approved, this law would result in those of us on campus feeling less safe, not more safe," read one faculty resolution. Teacher Nancy Jo Kirk warned such a law could deter top-notch professors fearful of campuses "potentially filled with hidden guns."   read more

“These leaked documents confirm what we have been saying for a long time: TTIP would put corporations at the center of policymaking, to the detriment of environment and public health,” said Greenpeace's Jorgo Riss. “We have known that the EU position was bad, now we see the U.S. position is even worse.” The Sierra Club said it was dismayed that the words “climate change” were “not mentioned once in the 248 pages.”   read more

In Wisconsin, Todd Allbaugh resigned as chief of staff to a leading Republican state senator last year after attending a party caucus in which, he said, some legislators “were literally giddy” over the effect of the state’s voter ID law on minorities and college students. “I remember when Republicans were the ones who helped Johnson pass the civil rights bill in the ‘60s — not Democrats,” said Allbaugh. “I went down to the office and said, ‘I’m done. I can’t support this party anymore.’”   read more

A tribe attorney said: "All we're seeking is for the citizens of Rosebud to get what they've been promised here. We're not suing because the emergency room was shut down. We're suing because [the federal government] under law is required to deliver an open emergency room that provides reasonable medical care. The emergency room has been closed for five months...?" The Sioux say "the federal government spends less on Indian health care than on any other group receiving public health care."   read more

Only 3 percent of kids with concussions were hospitalized or transferred elsewhere for additional treatment; 95 percent were sent home after ER treatment. Half of the head injuries were in kids ages 5 to 9 and injuries were more common in boys. Playground equipment most commonly involved in concussions included monkey bars and swings. The study lacked details on how kids got hurt but many concussions result from falls.   read more

"Mrs. Barrera, who is Anglo and a U.S. citizen, intended that she and her husband be buried together in the San Domingo Cemetery," the lawsuit states. "In response to her request...Mr. Bradford told Mrs. Barrera 'absolutely not. When Mrs. Barrera asked why 'the board' wanted to exclude her husband's remains from the San Domingo Cemetery, Mr. Bradford responded 'because he's a Mexican,' and that she could 'go up the road and bury him with the niggers and Mexicans."   read more

Last month, during a routine review of New Jersey’s finances, one could sense the alarm. The state’s wealthiest resident had reportedly “shifted his personal and business domicile to another state,” Frank W. Haines III, New Jersey’s legislative budget and finance officer, told a state Senate committee. If the news were true, New Jersey would lose so much in tax revenue that “we may be facing an unusual degree of income tax forecast risk,” Haines said.   read more

An oil and natural gas field in the western United States is largely responsible for a global uptick of the air pollutant ethane, according to a new study. The team led by researchers at the University of Michigan found that fossil fuel production at the Bakken Formation in North Dakota and Montana is emitting roughly 2% of the ethane detected in the Earth's atmosphere.   read more

A U.S. senator is calling for a federal investigation into an outdoor advertising company’s latest effort to target billboard ads to specific consumers. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York) has dubbed Clear Channel Outdoor Americas’ so-called RADAR program “spying billboards,” warning the service may violate privacy rights by tracking people’s cell phone data via the ad space.   read more

Health care workers are scrambling to help the people here cope with what many fear will be chronic consequences of the city’s water contamination crisis: profound stress, worry, depression and guilt. Uncertainty about their own health and the health of their children, the open-ended nature of the crisis, and raw anger over government’s role in both causing the lead contamination and trying to remedy it, are all taking their toll on Flint’s residents.   read more

White GOP state lawmakers in Alabama blocked the Birmingham City Council from raising the minimum wage for its mostly black population, a lawsuit claims. In a federal complaint filed on Thursday, the NAACP, Greater Birmingham Ministries, and two black fast-food workers, claim the state lawmakers have repeatedly pre-empted any local regulation of matters touching upon private sector employment.   read more