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

Two federal class actions claim the chocolate companies "turn a blind eye" to human rights abuses by cocoa suppliers in West Africa while falsely portraying themselves as socially and ethically responsible. Attorney Green told the judge that "we're dealing with very severe conditions on the Ivory Coast," where "something like 70% of the children who work on those cocoa farms are between the ages of five and eleven." He said if that information is not on the wrapper, "people won't see it."   read more

Before joining the Foreign Ministry, he was a journalist at the newspaper La Nation in Djibouti. Doualeh was made ambassador to Switzerland, the World Trade Organization and the United Nations agencies based in Geneva in 2006, posts he held until coming to Washington. A music enthusiast, Doualeh is a founding member of the cultural association ADAC, longtime organizer of "The Fest'horn," the largest music festival dedicated to peace in the Horn of Africa.   read more

. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders has a favorability rating of +7, while Hillary Clinton has a rating of -13. On the Republican side, John Kasich has a favorability rating of +19, while Donald Trump has a rating of -39. Guess who are the frontrunners to win their party’s nominations?   read more

JPMorgan Chase announced two weeks ago that it would no longer finance new coal-fired power plants. The retreat follows similar announcements by Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley that they are backing away from coal. Wall Street’s broad retreat is an ominous sign for the industry. “There are always going to be periods of boom and bust,” said Chiza Vitta, a metals and mining analyst. “But what is happening in coal is a downward shift that is permanent.”   read more

The district is offering blood tests of as many as 17,000 kids who were potentially exposed. "By the time school opened Wednesday morning, we were shutting off all water fountains and other affected sites at any school that had received a positive reading," Cerf said. But Newark's teachers union has criticized the state-controlled district for not taking such action in previous years.   read more

In 2005, Basáñez became chief pollster and advisor to state of Mexico then-governor del Mazo. More recently, Basáñez has been professor of values, culture and development at the Fletcher School of Diplomacy. When Basáñez was appointed ambassador, it created some controversy among some who pointed out he had no diplomatic experience and that it was his close association with del Mazo, a cousin of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, that accounted for his appointment.   read more

Abdullah, who is seen as a somewhat progressive free-market advocate, was named governor of SAGIA in 2000. When he resigned from the agency in 2004, it was said to be due to his frustration with government bureaucracy, the slow pace of reforms and privatization in the country, and his inability to bring in enough foreign investment. However, under Abdullah’s governorship at SAGIA, close to 2,000 foreign business licenses were issued, holding a total value of about $15 billion.   read more

Testing turned up PFOA in drinking water in Petersburgh, N.Y., and N. Bennington, Vermont, which had plastics plants. Vermont officials said water testing in North Bennington yielded readings of up to 2,730 ppt. The Pentagon is checking for traces of PFOS in the water at 664 U.S. military sites. Michael Hickey, who exposed the contamination in Hoosick Falls, said "My father died of kidney cancer. My grandmother had kidney cancer. My concern isn't really about me; it's about my 5-year-old son."   read more

"When I look at the new February 2016 temperatures, I feel like I'm looking at something out of a sci-fi movie," said climate scientist Kim Cobb. "In a way we are: it's like someone plucked a value off a graph from 2030 and stuck it on a graph of present temperatures. It is a portent of things to come, and it is sobering that such temperature extremes are already on our doorstep." NOAA's Deke Arndt said, ""We are in a new era. We have started a new piece of modern history for this climate."   read more

“There’s a climate emergency happening,” said protester Coby Schultz. “It’s a life-or-death struggle.” A wave of actions across the nation combines not-in-my-backyard protests against fossil-fuel projects with concern about climate change. Activists have been energized by President Obama's decisions to block offshore drilling along the Eastern Seaboard and to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. Far-flung activists are opposing virtually all new oil, gas and coal infrastructure projects.   read more

The constitutional obligation to provide criminal defense for the poor has been endangered by funding problems across the U.S., but nowhere is it in free fall like in Louisiana, where public defenders represent 80% of criminal defendants. Offices have been forced to lay off lawyers, leaving those remaining with caseloads well into the hundreds. Judges have ordered private lawyers to represent people for free. Some are tax and real estate lawyers without any background in criminal law.   read more

Air Force Gen. Lori Robinson is being nominated to head U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command. If confirmed by the Senate, Robinson would be the seventh commander to head the Colorado-based command. She currently is head of the Pacific Air Force. Northern Command was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to coordinate and improve homeland defense and to provide support for national disasters.   read more

On March 19, 2016, the popular novelist Irving Wallace—my father—would have turned 100 years old. Instead of honoring my father by presenting a review of his achievements and recalling what a generous, warm-hearted person he was and how much enjoyment he brought to millions of readers around the world, I have decided to look at some of the developments he would have most appreciated if he had lived to be 100, instead of dying at the age of 74.   read more

The probe is a fresh blow to a nuclear missile corps that has been under intense scrutiny in recent years for a string of lapses in training and personal conduct. The 14 have been removed from duty while the Air Force Office of Special Investigations looks into the case. Rand said the allegations are "credible." Two other defense officials said the drugs included cocaine; a third said the allegations include the possession, use or distribution of illegal drugs.   read more

Most Americans support it. All other developed countries already do it. And the two leading presidential candidates say: government should lower drug prices. But experts say the chances for government action in the near-term are close to nil. The reasons are familiar: political gridlock, pharmaceutical industry influence and the structure of the U.S. health system itself. "There's not much they can do, that's the sad truth," says Ira Loss. "They can't do much so they're not gonna do much."   read more

In more than one in six cases, or 129,825 times, government searchers said they came up empty-handed last year. Such cases contributed to an alarming measurement: People who asked for records under the law received censored files or nothing in 77 percent of requests, also a record. "It's incredibly unfortunate when someone waits months, or perhaps years, to get a response to their request — only to be told that the agency can't find anything," said attorney Adam Marshall.   read more