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

Indiana cannot withhold federal funds from relief organizations that help refugee families from Syria settle in the state, a federal judge ruled. Gov. Mike Pence (R) was among 31 governors who vowed not to let any of the millions of refugees fleeing slaughter in Syria resettle in their states. Marion County-based Exodus Refugee Immigration sued the governor, claiming that Pence’s decision hampers its efforts to place about 19 Syrians who had already received federal refugee status.   read more

Screened high-tech specialists will be brought in to try to breach the Defense Department’s public Internet pages in a pilot program aimed at finding and fixing cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Defense officials laid out the broad outlines of the plan Wednesday, but had few details on how it will work, what Pentagon systems would be tested and how the hackers would be compensated. Called “Hack the Pentagon,” the program will begin next month.   read more

The Senate on Wednesday rejected a Democratic effort to add $600 million to a bipartisan bill targeting heroin and opioid abuse. Supporters of the immediate funding won a majority of the Senate votes. But the 48-47 tally fell short of the 60 votes required for an attempt by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., to add the money. Shaheen said “the reality is unless we provide the resources to make these programs work it’s like giving a drowning person a life preserver that has no air in it.”   read more

Utah senators on Wednesday voted to abolish the death penalty, advancing what had been considered a longshot proposal in the conservative state. The measure marks a stunning turn in Utah, where a year ago lawmakers voted to reinstate the use of the firing squad as a backup execution method. Lawmakers argued that if the state has a shortage of lethal injection drugs, it must still find a way to kill death row inmates.   read more

The House provision is drawing protests from officials suing Monsanto to try to recover costs associated with PCB cleanups, and from lawyers trying to collect damages for individuals with health problems linked to PCB exposure. “Call me a dreamer, but I wish for a Congress that would help cities with their homeless crises instead of protecting multinational corporations that poison our environment,” said attorney Pete Holmes, suing Monsanto to cover costs of reducing PCB from Seattle sewers.   read more

High prices for cancer medicines aren't the only reason they cost insurers and patients so much. Waste pads the bill, a study finds, because cancer drugs are distributed in the U.S. in vials that usually contain more medicine than most patients need. Most of the time that excess is thrown out, even though it's perfectly good — and worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. Researchers estimate that wasted cancer medicine in the U.S. this year will add up to nearly $3 billion in excess costs.   read more

He has been depicted as a snarling demagogue in France, equated with Donald Duck in Spain, and described as worse than Lord Voldemort in Britain. In Europe, Trump has been treated variously as a disturbing curiosity or an entertaining political show barker. Commentators on both left and right have dismissed the notion of U.S. President Donald Trump as the stuff of fantasy, or, at worst, a momentary lapse of reason. The reaction is a mix of befuddlement, outrage and panic.   read more

Some billboards have been equipped with small cameras that collect information about the people walking by. Privacy advocates, however, have long raised questions about mobile device tracking, particularly as companies have melded this location information with consumers’ online behavior to form detailed audience profiles. “People have no idea that they’re being tracked and targeted,” said CDD's Jeffrey Chester. “It is incredibly creepy, and it’s the most recent intrusion into our privacy.”   read more

Basin & Range Watch posted a video that it says shows birds flying into the solar beams and "incinerating in the intense reflected heat." About 115 birds were set aflame that way, the group says. The video shows them "being burned and literally turning to smoke as they fly through the concentrated solar rays," says the complaint. Biologists calls these bird deaths "streamers," due to the smoke they give off as their feathers catch fire and the birds fall to the ground in the 900-degree beam.   read more

The FBI did not help its case with lawmakers when Comey acknowledged the mistake of changing the iCloud password. “There was a mistake made in that 24 hours after the attack,” Comey told lawmakers at a hearing on the government’s attempt to force Apple to help “unlock” the iPhone. “If the FBI hadn’t instructed San Bernardino County to change the password to the iCloud account, all this would have been unnecessary, and you would have had that information,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.   read more

It wasn't just one question; it was a string of them in an exchange that lasted several minutes. Thomas' gravelly voice unexpectedly filled the courtroom and enlivened an otherwise sleepy argument about gun rights. He peppered Justice Department lawyer Ilana Eisenstein with 10 or so questions that seemed to be a vigorous defense of the constitutional right to own a gun. It provoked gasps from the audience, but none of the other justices visibly reacted to Thomas' remarks.   read more

The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that home begins at the window screen - even if only the fingertips have succeeded in breaking and entering. Anthony Holt was convicted of breaking and entering a home in Las Cruces and was sentenced to five years and five months in prison. He appealed, claiming that only his fingertips had entered the home, as the homeowner heard him, and when she caught him in the act, he said, "Oh, I'm sorry," and vamoosed.   read more

The lawsuit asks a judge to force the state to prevent women from being sexually abused by male guards. The prison culture permits supposed "willing" or "consensual" sexual contact between prisoners and guards even though "state law, prison policy, and common sense make clear that women in custody are unable to consent in the coercive prison environment," the lawsuit said. Guards are so unlikely to be punished for misbehavior that they freely disregard policies that would stop them, it said.   read more

The story of how some of the country’s leading civil society advocates came to lose faith in the White House’s privacy initiative does not follow the typical plot of Washington gridlock. It is a tale of clashing visions for U.S. society and commerce. And it provides an instructive preview of looming battles among government agencies for control over industries like drones, smartphones and gadgets yet to come.   read more

State and local officials assured the public on several occasions that the water was safe. But many residents here believe the damage has already been done in Hoosick Falls. Families have lined up to have their blood drawn and their wells tested. Banks stopped giving out mortgages, and some local residents stopped washing their dishes, their clothes and themselves. Erin Brockovich has been to town.   read more

The complaint claims that the voting law affects more than 600 mentally ill residents, and could affect up to 850 given the maximum occupancy of the five state hospitals that house such residents. Featherston claims the law is a form of discrimination because similar restrictions do not apply to college students and those who live in a veterans home, who are allowed by law to vote in those precincts. The residents of those facilities have no other homes where they could claim residency to vote.   read more