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

The 15-year veteran reporter gave up the newspaper business last August because he couldn’t afford the low pay. He left the Daily Breeze, the Southern California newspaper that once employed him and that generally pays its reporters in the mid-$40,000 range. But this week, Kuznia found out he and others at the Daily Breeze had received a Pulitzer for a six-month, 50-story investigation into possible corruption at a local school district.   read more

The problem goes back to the 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which led to the FDA being given only minor instruction for regulating the millions of cosmetics sold each year. The new Senate bill would change that. The proposal would require companies to report “serious” adverse health effects from consumers, such as reactions to products that result in death, disfigurement or hospitalization, within 15 business days. Non-serious events would have to be detailed in an annual report.   read more

A major controversy in the movie is its portrayal of the CIA using torture to extract intelligence that helped lead to the agency locating bin Laden. Some lawmakers took exception to this, criticizing it as untrue. Senators Feinstein, McCain and Levin wrote that “given the CIA’s cooperation with the filmmakers and the narrative’s consistency with past public misstatements by former senior CIA officials, that the filmmakers could have been misled by information they were provided by CIA.”   read more

The situation, ushered in by the 2010 Citizens United ruling, could lead to “anointing an aristocracy that’s getting a stronger and stronger grip on democracy,” said Miles Rapoport. One of the biggest progressive donors in 2014 was Tom Steyer, whose Nextgen Climate Action was the largest super PAC, raising almost $78 million, 85% from Steyer himself. On the right, packaging mogul Richard Uihlein funded three super PACs, for which he was the only donor, or gave more than 85% of its contributions.   read more

The report told of deportees being flown around the U.S., often back and forth between their original location and other cities before finally being sent to their home countries. Despite the volume of passengers on ICE Air, there are often plenty of empty seats. The audit analyzed 5,699 flights to see if ICE is using the planes to its full advantage and found that 5% were less than 40% full. If ICE had operated its flights at full capacity, it could have saved as much as $41.1 million.   read more

The rents for these units will range from $833 for a studio to $1,082 for a two-bedroom. The building has drawn controversy for its separate entrances, one for the low-income residents and the other for the rest. In fact, the two parts of the building will even have separate street addresses. However, those differences didn’t seem to discourage many from applying for one of the affordable dwellings. As of Monday, more than 88,000 people had asked for one of the units,   read more

“The American radical right is again large and dangerous, comprising close to 1,700 groups and hundreds of thousands of individuals,” wrote Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok. “Terrorism has risen again to the levels of the 1990s, with many afraid that the next attack on the scale of Oklahoma City could come at any time. And radical ideas have permeated much of our increasingly polarized political process, distorting our thinking and deflecting efforts to make ours a better country.”   read more

All of the flawed testimony favored prosecutors over the defense. It was not only one or two individuals who continually provided flawed testimony. In fact, 26 of the 28 testifying FBI examiners were at fault. Thirty-two of the cases resulted in the defendants being found guilty and sentenced to death. In 14 of those 32 cases, the defendants were executed or died in prison. Sen. Richard Blumenthal called the findings "appalling and chilling in their indictment of our criminal justice system."   read more

It shouldn’t come as surprise that IBM would agree to such a deal since the Chinese have poured more than $1.75 billion into IBM through investments since 2005. “Critics say IBM is caving in to Chinese demands, placing short-term business gains ahead of longer-term political and trade issues,” wrote Mozur. ”Its actions may spur other American companies to break ranks and also submit to the new Chinese regulations, out of concern that IBM will get advantages by cooperating with the country.”   read more

Saudi Arabia’s attacks on Yemeni rebels were made possible by F-15 fighter jets purchased from Boeing, while the UAE air force has hit ISIS in Syria using F-16s made by Lockheed Martin. The UAE also wants General Atomics’ Predator drones “to run spying missions in their neighborhood.” More weapons deals are expected as the Saudis and Emirates, plus Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt seek to “buy thousands of American-made missiles, bombs and other weapons."   read more

Detaining tens of thousands of immigrants each day in the U.S. has been good for two private prison operators: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group. The two companies are responsible for imprisoning the majority of the 34,000 immigrants who must be locked up daily, per a federal quota established by Congress five years ago. CCA and GEO operate eight of the 10 largest immigrant detention centers and 72% of the privately contracted federal immigrant detention beds.   read more

“If F-35 aircraft are employed at night for combat, pilots will have no night vision capability available due to the restriction on using the current night vision camera,” Michael Gilmore, director of operational test and evaluation at the Defense Department, said in written testimony. In contrast, the 1970s-era A-10 Thunderbolt, known as the Warthog, can remain over a battlefield for up to 90 minutes and augment its four air-to-ground missiles with fire from a cannon in its nose.   read more

A report released by CAP and The Wilderness Society says that a fifth of the greenhouse gases emitted in the United States come from fossil fuel extraction on public lands. Jewell also said that the oil and gas industry, which has been less than forthcoming on the dangers of fracking, particularly about what kinds of chemicals are being injected into the ground, should reassure Americans that fracking is safe.   read more

President Barack Obama claims that “Before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured—the highest standard we can set." But a report written by the Open Society Justice Initiative, after it examined nine drone strikes in Yemen, shows the opposite. In those attacks, 26 civilians, including five children, were killed and 13 more wounded.   read more

Auditors found that nearly all examiners are graded “above average” on performance evaluations, entitling them to bonuses averaging more than $6,000 per year. The report also outlined “patent mortgaging,” a practice in which examiners submit incomplete work to gain credit. This is supposed to be treated as misconduct, but often isn’t, the inspector general found. Another practice, “end-loading,” is when examiners wait until the end of a quarter to submit reports.   read more

One of the plaintiffs, Abel Edwards, was fined $500 by Judge Joshua C. Bell for burning leaves in his front yard. That fine by itself appears to be steep for such an offense, but after Red Hills’ fees were added on, it totaled more than $1,000. The probation company demanded $250 up front and had Edwards was kept in jail several days until a friend came up with the money.   read more