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 radiation isotope identifier is used by U.S. Customs to determine if there are nuclear materials on trains and trucks coming into the U.S. But out of 222 rail shipments requiring such examination that went through six ports, 160 of the shipments, or 72% of the total, were not checked. Customs agents “may have failed to require examinations of rail shipments that were at a higher risk to contain...weapons of mass destruction [and] potential instruments of terrorism" from entering the U.S.   read more

Lawmakers have yet to embrace legislation that would allow service members to opt out of arbitration because the financial industry, which contributes millions to members of Congress, has lobbied hard to prevent new laws from being adopted. Some believe that if members of the armed forces get relief from onerous arbitration clauses, members of the general public will realize that they too are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to dealing with big corporations.   read more

The three-inch-long minnow went from being nearly extinct in 1993, when biologists documented fewer than a thousand of the chubs, to about 140,000 today. Paul Henson, Oregon supervisor for the FWS, called the fish’s recovery “a significant milestone, not only for conservation in Oregon but for conservation in the whole country. The chub illustrates that you can recover species and get them off the list." The agency intends to continue monitoring the Oregon chub for the next nine years.   read more

The tax-free bonds were first used to make it easier for cities and counties to finance important infrastructure projects, roads or bridges. But once franchise owners started threatening to leave communities if taxpayers didn’t build them new sporting venues, lawmakers began using the special bonds to finance some of the enormous costs associated with stadium projects. In some cases, the bonds have been proposed to absorb nearly 50% of a new stadium price tag.   read more

Milke is suing the former detective who handled her case—as well as other law enforcement officials—claiming they wrongly helped put her away for the 1989 killing of her son, Christopher. The actual killers of Milke’s son, Jim Styers and Roger Scott, were friends of Milke. They were tried and convicted and are on death row for shooting the little boy execution-style in the desert. Arizona prosecutors were still hoping to retry Milke, who was being monitored with an electronic ankle bracelet.   read more

The incident baffled investigators because the deadly bacterium managed to travel from an ultra-secure research lab to the hospital, in a separate building five minutes away. The CDC reported that “it's unlikely there is any threat to the general population” from the bioterror bacterium. But one outside review claimed that “too few tests were done...to detect what can be an elusive bacterium.” It can hide in the human body for years and can produce a disease that has a 50% fatality rate.   read more

“The C.I.A.’s contribution to Qaeda’s bottom line,” Rosenberg wrote, “was just another in a long list of examples of how the United States, largely because of poor oversight and loose financial controls, has sometimes inadvertently financed the very militants it is fighting.” The CIA contribution to the ransom payment was discovered in letters written to Osama bin Laden and obtained by the Navy SEALs who stormed his compound in 2011 and killed the al Qaeda leader.   read more

The endorsement is “a major coup for the Kraft Foods Group,” said the Times, despite Kraft being "a frequent target of advocates for better children’s nutrition, who contend that many of its products [have] too much fat, sodium, sugar...and preservatives.” Said Andy Bellatti: “You would think an organization that has come under fire for so many years for its relations with food companies might pick something other than a highly processed cheese product for its first endorsement."   read more

The U.S. was responsible for one-third of all defense exports and “was the main beneficiary of growth,” IHS reported. Saudi Arabia surpassed India to become the largest defense market for U.S. weapons makers, as the oil sheikdom increased its defense imports 54% from 2013 to 2014. This year is expected to be another strong year for Saudi imports, rising another 52% to $9.8 billion. “One out of every seven dollars spent on defense imports in 2015 will be spent by Saudi Arabia,” reported IHS.   read more

On average, the country is spending 15% less per pupil in the poorest school districts ($9,270 per child) than in the most affluent ($10,721 per child). The disparity also is visible in 23 states that have favored rich school districts over struggling ones. Pennsylvania has the distinction of having the largest gap between rich and poor districts (33%), while Colorado (0.2%) has the smallest among the 23 states. Education Secretary Duncan called the situation “unconscionable.”   read more

The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday approved the Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Protection Act, which would facilitate the sharing of information from private companies to the government. The vote was 14-1 with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) the lone holdout. Wyden called the bill “a surveillance bill by another name.”   read more

Citigroup got the most help of the four in the bailout, $2.5 trillion. That company has at least 427 offshore divisions where it squirrels away profits out of reach of the American people. Those funds, as of early 2014, totaled $43.8 billion, which would mean $11.7 billion in tax revenue for the United States if they were brought to this country. Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat was rewarded with $1.5 million in salary, $4.5 million in bonuses and $8 million in stock for his work in 2014.   read more

The doll, set to be released in the fall and developed with the startup ToyTalk, will record what the child (or anyone else within range) says and use voice-recognition software to analyze the speech, compare it to other things previously said by the child, and make an appropriate response. Mattel will email parents with transcripts of the child’s conversations with Barbie.   read more

Officials in rural Jefferson County, Florida, have put into place an election map that includes one district in which nearly half the residents are ineligible to vote—because they’re in prison. Jefferson officials included about 1,157 inmates at the Jefferson Correctional Institution among the residents of District 3, comprising 43.2% of the voting age population in the district.   read more

Moed referred to himself as “Bitch Boy”—but Leathers discovered his name when he sent her a pink leash and collar via Amazon and his name was on the package. “I Googled him and found out he’s a lawmaker. Apparently only politicians can pick up on my pheromones,” Leathers said. Leathers was somewhat disappointed that another liberal politician had been caught up in a scandal involving her. “I’m really sad,” she said. “I was really hoping it was a Republican.”   read more

The El Salvadoran defense official who oversaw his country’s national guard when four American churchwomen were raped and murdered 35 years ago is facing deportation from the United States. The Board of Immigration Appeals, part of the Department of Justice, ruled that General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova should be kicked out of the country for violating a 2004 federal human rights law.   read more