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

Did you ever buy porn, sniff glue, have sex in junior high? Exactly how many times? White House lawyers are scouring a life's worth of information about President Obama's potential picks for the Supreme Courtl. Prospective justices are put through the nation's most thorough background check, an invasive process where nothing is off-limits. Candidates' taxes, writings, childhoods, business dealings, medical histories and, yes, love lives, are all scrutinized for potential red flags.   read more

The Justice Department has found that bringing cases against kleptocrats and seizing their assets has been daunting. Government prosecutors have taken aim at funds held by officials from Nigeria, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Taiwan, Honduras and even Canada. One case involves the glamorous Gulnara Karimova, the Harvard-educated daughter of the Uzbek president, said to have absconded with $300 million and stashed in an American bank’s overseas branch.   read more

The number of earthquakes with a magnitude 3.0 or greater has risen in Oklahoma from a few dozen in 2012 to more than 900 last year. Recent peer-reviewed studies suggest injecting high volumes of wastewater could aggravate natural faults. SandRidge Energy initially refused to comply before reaching an agreement with the agency last month. Oklahoma House Speaker Jeff Hickman is pushing a bill to make clear the Corporation Commission has the power to order wells to shut down or reduce volume.   read more

The proposed rules are designed to ensure that the more than 46 million Americans who use food stamps have better access to healthy foods although they don't dictate what people buy or eat. A person using food stamp dollars could still purchase as much junk food as they wanted, but they would at least have more options in the store to buy fruits, vegetables, dairy, meats and bread. In all, the rules would require stores to stock at least 168 items that USDA considers healthy.   read more

Zimroth said he's discovered that many officers and higher-ups don't understand what's expected of them and are unaware of the changes. The message "needs to be communicated and reinforced better, not just at the top, but throughout the department," he wrote. Zimroth said that part of the reform must be to make sure the practice is done correctly. "Getting it right means this: that police officers understand their lawful authority and limit their activities to what is permitted by law."   read more

An international animal advocacy group launched a protest against a New Hampshire winter carnival event billed as a "Greased Pig on Ice," but withdrew it after learning there's no pig in the act — just a man on skates in a pig costume with dollar bills tied to his tail. The carnival's Steve Smith said People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals launched its alert despite his reassurances that no pigs would be harmed during the event. Smith received about 100 emails from concerned animal lovers.   read more

In a class action filed Wednesday in Federal Court, plaintiff Bryan Strother says the National Guard offered soldiers bonuses in order to inflate its reserves and that the plaintiff class is "victims of one of the most egregious mass frauds in U.S. Military history." According to the complaint, the Defense Dept. has mismanaged $8.5 trillion and that it uses computer software dating back to 1959. The "archaic accounting systems" contributed to defendants' decision to recoup bonuses from vets.   read more

The report could put embarrassing pressure on the U.S. over support for Saudi Arabia. The Americans have sold arms and furnished training and expertise to a Saudi-led coalition that has faced widespread criticism for what rights groups call an indiscriminate bombing campaign in Yemen. “Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, as well as their U.S. supplier, are blatantly disregarding the global standard that says cluster munitions should never be used under any circumstances,” said the report.   read more

The Hellfire is a laser-guided, air-to-surface missile that weighs about 100 pounds. U.S. officials had been trying to recoup the missile for several months. The shipping error was attributed to Lockheed's freight forwarders. Cuba said the missile had arrived as a result of "error or mishandling" in its country of origin. "For Cuban authorities, the arrival in the country of U.S.-made military equipment that hadn't been declared as such on the cargo manifesto was worrying," the government said.   read more

"Our whole team was angry... You could see that there was a intentional, deliberate method to prevent us from doing our job," said DEQ's Jim Henry. He said his office had urged involvement of the Centers for Disease Control, but the DEQ prohibited further communication on the matter. "They prevented that team from coming here and helping us to find the source," Henry said. After that, he said, there more cases of Legionnaires' in the summer of 2015, four of them fatal.   read more

State Rep. Mary Lou Marzian said the bill is symbolic but she is trying to make a point about government intrusion. "My point is to illustrate how intrusive and ridiculous it is for elected officials to be inserting themselves into private and personal medical decisions," she said. Marzian introduced the bill days after Republican Governor Matt Bevin signed an informed consent law that requires women to consult with a doctor before having an abortion.   read more

WTOL-TV reports that a computer malfunction dropped prices at one north Toledo gas station, and another across the street lowered its prices to stay competitive early Sunday. Customer Taylor Kline told the station he filled his empty tank for just 26 cents. The extra-low pricing lasted at least three hours before returning to normal.   read more

American and British regulators are likely to charge several banks with rigging interest rates, including Citigroup, the third-largest U.S. bank, and London-based HSBC Holdings, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority were preparing a final round of civil charges against the banks for rate manipulation in the Libor scandal, the newspaper reported, citing people close to the investigation.   read more

Argentina’s main farm group on Friday took complaints against Monsanto to local regulators, accusing the company of abusing its dominant position in the market by ordering exporters to inspect soy cargos for second-generation genetically modified seeds. The Argentine Rural Society filed the complaint before the National Commission for the Defense of Competition, or CNDC. The SRA argues that under local law farmers must pay for Monsanto technology only at the time they originally buy seeds.   read more

In a federal complaint filed Thursday in Washington, the James Madison Project and reporter Ken Dilanian say they are seeking documents that could shed light on the extent to which the agencies may have targeted John Kiriakou, a CIA agent from 1990 to 2004, after he disclosed to a reporter the agency’s use of waterboarding, which many believe is a form of torture.   read more

The federal government plans to spend $80 million assessing whether its hottest nuclear waste can be stored in 3-mile-deep holes, a project that could provide an alternative strategy to a Nevada repository plan that was halted in 2010. The five-year borehole project was tentatively slated to start later this year on state-owned land in rural North Dakota, but it has already been met with opposition from state and local leaders.   read more