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 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced the number of people killed in passenger vehicles dropped by 3% to 21,132. That total, according to the NHTSA, was the lowest on record going back to 1975. The data for last year also showed a 3.1% decline in overall highway deaths from 2012 and nearly a 25% drop since 2004.   read more

Raji’s appointment to Stockholm initially stirred excitement in India and among the Indian-American community. Because her last name connotes royalty in Sanskrit-related languages, it was thought that she was of Indian heritage. But when it was announced that she’d been born in Tehran, Indian publications had to backtrack. Although Raji has supported Iranian-American cultural projects, she has never corrected media accounts referring to her as Indian-American.   read more

The U.S., which sells more military hardware by far than any other nation, signed the treaty in 2013, but it hasn’t been ratified by the Senate. Other arms producing nations that haven’t agreed to the treaty are China, Russia, India and Pakistan. The treaty regulates cross-border transfer of conventional weapons from small arms to tanks.   read more

The FDA’s decision ends a rule in effect since 1983, when AIDS was just beginning to enter the American consciousness. Gay rights advocates complained that the new rule still discriminates against gay men, who must remain celibate for 12 months to give blood, while heterosexual men are only subject to the same year-long restriction if they have sex with prostitutes or with those who use injectable drugs.   read more

John Roth, the inspector general (IG) for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the Secret Service, recently said the agency refused to provide data on its computer security systems. Roth’s request came as part of an audit (pdf) into DHS’ computer networks. Roth said he was told that the Secret Service wouldn’t release data on its unclassified security systems “due to concerns for operational safety.”   read more

The Marshall Project, a nonpartisan news organization, says appellate courts have reversed at least 10 convictions in just the last two years because district attorneys’ offices went too far in using PowerPoint slides to unfairly influence jurors. In some instances, the slides have featured animation and sound effects, including using bull’s-eye images to zero in on a defendant’s photo and declare them “GUILTY” in bright red letters.   read more

Carter returned to the Executive Branch in 2009 as undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics. Because he had received consulting fees from defense contractor Textron (not to mention Raytheon and Goldman Sachs), he had to be issued an ethics waver to avoid Obama administration restrictions on revolving door conflicts.   read more

Before Brinsley killed NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wen Jian Liu and committed suicide, he shot his former girlfriend, Shaneka Thompson. He reportedly entered Thompson’s Baltimore apartment, shot her in the stomach and then left for New York City. Thompson cried out for help, according to The Nation. “I can’t die like this. Please, please help me,” she said while knocking on a neighbor’s door. She is expected to survive her attack.   read more

In January 2013, Murthy co-authored a letter (pdf) from Doctors for America to members of Congress urging action to institute gun-safety measures in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings. When his nomination for surgeon general was announced on November 13 of that year, the NRA and its allies swung into action. The organization declared that it would “score” the vote for Murthy’s confirmation and take action against those senators who supported him.   read more

Taub went to work in the office of McHugh, who was made chairman of the Postal Services Subcommittee. Taub became its staff director for three years beginning in 1998, making him the spokesman for the efforts that culminated in 2006 in the creation of the commission he now chairs. Taub was appointed to the Postal Regulatory Commission in October 2011 and was became its vice chairman on January 1, 2013.   read more

Although the Iraq war has been over for a few years now, it still was the more costly of the two conflicts. Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn consumed $815 billion, or 51% of the total. As for Operation Enduring Freedom, which is still ongoing, the cost of American involvement in Afghanistan is now up to $686 billion. The human cost of the two wars for Americans has been: 4,491 deaths and 32,244 wounded in Iraq; and 2,356 deaths and 20,060 wounded in Afghanistan.   read more

The new appropriations bill approved by lawmakers and President Barack Obama slashed another $60 million from EPA’s budget. The spending reduction was crafted by Republicans, who loathe the EPA’s regulatory interference in business operations. But Obama was willing to go along with the cut, too. That shouldn’t come as a surprise since EPA has endured five consecutive years of shrinking budgets while Obama has been in office. Funding for the EPA has dropped more than 20% since 2010.   read more

Tyler was committed briefly in the 1980s following his divorce. A recent psychiatric evaluation found that he now has no sign of mental illness. He has since remarried and not suffered from depression. With these facts in mind, Judge Danny Boggs wrote: “The government’s interest in keeping firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill is not sufficiently related to depriving the mentally healthy, who had a distant episode of commitment, of their constitutional rights.”   read more

“Our sport was born on frozen ponds and relies on winter weather,” said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. “Everyone who loves our game will benefit by taking an active role in preserving the environment and the roots of the game.” The announcement was “the most important environmental initiative ever made by a sports league,” said Green Sports Alliance president Allen Hershkowitz.   read more

The appellate court found the law to be “ideological in intent.” The statute also constituted a violation of free-speech rights, according to Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, who was appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan. “Transforming the physician into the mouthpiece of the state undermines the trust that is necessary for facilitating healthy doctor-patient relationships and, through them, successful treatment outcomes,” Wilkinson wrote in the opinion.   read more

From human rights organizations to the editorial boards of leading national newspapers, there have been numerous calls for the Obama administration to prosecute former officials in the CIA and the administration of George W. Bush for allowing and carrying out last decade’s controversial torture program against detainees. To many, nothing short of a war-crimes tribunal will suffice for the sake of bringing justice—and closure—to one of the ugliest episodes in modern U.S. political history.   read more