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

A study found that Texas saw a drop in women obtaining long-acting birth control after Republican leaders booted Planned Parenthood from a state women's health program in 2013, which researchers said may explain an increase in births among poor families. The same year Texas barred Planned Parenthood from state family planning services, then-Gov. Rick Perry signed abortion restrictions that shuttered clinics under a sweeping law that the U.S. Supreme Court will review next month.   read more

Texas was the top state for exonerations, propelled by conviction integrity units set up in its most populous counties. The state known for its tough approach on crime has also been a national leader in prosecutorial reform. "For the integrity of the system, it is the right thing to do," said Inger Chandler, head of Harris County District Attorney's Conviction Review Section, which had 42 exonerations in 2015. Texas had 54 exonerations in 2015, followed by 17 in New York and 13 in Illinois.   read more

The decision came while gun rights and safety registering are hot-button issue on the U.S. presidential campaign trail after several mass shootings last year. Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, said that gun group administrators were notified of the new policy ahead of its enforcement. Bickert said Facebook's community operations team decides whether to remove reported content including terrorist activity, cyber-bullying and nudity, in addition to private gun sales.   read more

The House committee reviewed more than 75,000 pages of documents from drugmaker Valeant. The paperwork shows that CEO J. Michael Pearson decided to buy two life-saving heart drugs, Nitropress and Isuprel, to dramatically hike prices and drive up his company's revenue and profit. The drugs generated $547 million in revenue and around $351 million in profits last year alone. The memo said the drugmaker also more than tripled the prices on over 20 additional U.S. products in 2014 and 2015.   read more

Rep. Jeff Miller called Schroeder's ruling "a twist of tragic comedy." The VA's attempt to discipline Graves "was undone by its refusal to discipline other employees involved in this scandal," he said. "By now there should be no doubt whatsoever that our federal civil service system is in need of drastic reform." VA Secretary Gibson says he still intends to punish two senior officials accused of manipulating the agency's hiring system for their own gain.   read more

The complain claims there was a "pervasive system of corruption and racism" in Indian Country, and the Dept. of Interior recovered money on behalf of minor allottees. The plaintiffs seek an accounting related to the alleged breaches of fiduciary duties. The defendants, Interior Secretary Jewell and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Washburn, moved to dismiss. Judge Contreras granted the motion, relying upon the ruling that "the wrong to the ancestor is not a wrong to the descendants."   read more

The selective service question revealed differences between the military chiefs and their political leaders. Army Gen. Mark Milley and Marine Gen. Robert Neller both flatly said that women should be included in the requirement to register for the selective service at age 18. But Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Army Acting Secretary Patrick Murphy would only say that the issue should be discussed. Political leaders overall have so far been reluctant to endorse the draft requirement.   read more

Multiple news outlets report that at least 350 jury summons with the incorrect phone number were sent out in Jackson County to potential jurors. Circuit Clerk Randy Carney says people started calling the circuit clerk's office Monday morning to report the problem. Others stopped by in person to address the issue. Carney says he doesn't know what caused the mix-up.   read more

Felons can run for public office in Louisiana because the state Senate improperly amended the state constitution in 1998 to prevent it, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled. Under state Senate Bill No. 321, of 1997, unpardoned, convicted felons were to be prohibited from seeking a municipal or state office.The bill was amended in the Senate, providing an exception for felons who had completed their sentence more than 15 years before the candidate-qualifying date.   read more

President George W. Bush nominated Petersen to a spot on the FEC in June 2008. His nomination was confirmed by his former employers on the Rules Committee. He served a term as FEC chairman beginning in 2010. As one of the three Republican appointees on the FEC, Petersen has been a reliable vote against attempts to reform elections. In 2013, for instance, he voted to make it more difficult for the Justice Department to prosecute campaign finance violations.   read more

The spy operation, codenamed "Anarchist", was run out of a Cyprus base and targeted other Middle East states too. "We know that the Americans spy on the whole world, and also on us, also on their friends," said Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz. "But still, it is disappointing, inter alia because, going back decades already, we have not spied nor collected intelligence nor hacked encryptions in the United States."   read more

The Brennan Center said the program relies on a flawed approach to counter terrorism that "all but ensures" it will stigmatize Muslims and reinforce Islamophobic stereotypes, suppress dissent, and sow discord in communities. The program has had bureaucratic infighting, as some experts have advocated enlisting ultra-orthodox, nonviolent Islamic activists and scholars in deradicalization efforts. Other experts have argued that such activists sometimes help indoctrinate violent militants.   read more

"Every year that we've operated the hotline since 2007, the number of cases we've handled has increased," Bouchard said. A recent academic report funded by the National Institute of Justice found that posting the hotline number in public places was "the most important provision for increasing the number of human trafficking arrests." Three-quarters of the cases reported last year entailed sex trafficking and slightly more than 10 percent were labor trafficking, Polaris said.   read more

The Republican leaders of Texas, who have stood by the cheerleaders, saw the court's decision as a victory for religious freedom. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which brought the complaint, said it sees the banners as violating the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution regarding government prohibitions on establishing religion. "They (the banners) signal to students and members of the community who are non-Christian that they are outsiders," said foundation lawyer Patrick Elliott,   read more

Linked fundamentalist Mormon towns in Utah and Arizona refused to provide water hookups to residents who didn't belong to the church, but connected water for church projects without waiting for an application. Both towns are dominated by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose leader Warren Jeffs is serving life plus 20 years for sexually assaulting two girls when they were 12 and 15. He called them his "spiritual wives."   read more

Misiewicz admitted to providing Malaysian businessman Leonard Francis, known to friends as "Fat Leonard," classified information worth millions of dollars. The information included ship movements and helping arrange visits by U.S. Navy vessels to ports where Francis' company had contracts. In exchange, Francis furnished Misiewicz with such gifts as travel, entertainment, luxury hotel stays, prostitutes and five tickets to a Lady Gaga concert in Thailand.   read more