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 Pentagon's inspector general essentially concluded that the department should do a better job of monitoring development of new weapons systems to avoid soaring costs. Not that there haven’t been a lot of examples of this problem. Among them is the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport dock ship, that took three years longer than planned to build and consumed an extra $846 million along the way. The IG recommended an oversight office but the Defense Department is resistant.   read more

The Nov. 4 turnout was so Republican friendly that even Sherri Ybarra won her race. The much-maligned GOP candidate for Idaho superintendent for public instruction narrowly defeated her Democratic rival, Jana Jones. Numerous missteps plagued Ybarra’s campaign. These included plagiarsm, claiming non-existent endorsements, and failing to vote in 15 of the past 17 state elections. Her opponent, Jones, had nearly twice the experience, having served for two former superintendents.   read more

Residents of the Big Apple have long (and proudly) claimed that there were so many rats in the city that the rodent population was on par with the human one. That meant the metropolis had about 8 million rats. Not so, says statistician Jonathan Auerbach, who calculated that New York’s rat population was closer to 2 million. Rat expert Robert Sullivan concurred. “But...everybody loves the idea of eight million rats," he said. "The one-rat-per-person scenario is too good.”   read more

Saldaña helped handle a corruption scandal involving Dallas city officials charged with bribery and extortion in connection with affordable housing contracts. She saw Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill sent away for 18 years. When President Barack Obama took office in 2009, he had a chance to appoint the U.S. attorney in Dallas. Saldaña, a Democrat, had the backing of Republican Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchinson, but not of the Texas Democratic congressional delegation.   read more

Karsting considered a new career in the restaurant business, but returned to Capitol Hill in 2004 to work in the office of Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl (D). He began as a legislative assistant, moved up to appropriations coordinator in 2005 and in 2006 was made Kohl’s deputy chief of staff. In 2009, Karsting was made chief of staff for the senator, a job he held until Kohl retired in 2013.   read more

If there was a silver lining in Tuesday’s rather dark outcome for Democrats, it was the many progressive ballot measures embraced by voters around the country. Advocates for legalized marijuana were successful in Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C. Despite heavy opposition from the soft drink industry, voters in Berkeley, California approved a 1-cent-per-ounce general tax on sugary beverages and sweeteners. Opponents of fracking also celebrated in three states where communities banned drilling.   read more

There were a lot of winners on the conservative side of the political spectrum this week. That includes powerful right-wing groups that spent tens of millions of dollars on Republican campaigns and causes. The Koch brothers received an 85% return on their $21.5 million investment in the election. GOP strategist Karl Rove's Crossroads had a 96% success rate in races in which it had put money, spending 16 times as much on negative ads as on positive ones.   read more

While having little or no presence in Luxembourg, corporations have enjoyed huge tax breaks through various accounting schemes and legal maneuvers. FedEx established two Luxembourg affiliates so it could move money country to country. The plan resulted in its paying only one quarter of 1% on the earnings involved. PepsiCo arranged several loans with Luxembourg’s help to cut its taxes on $1.4 billion spent to obtain controlling interest in a Russian juice producer.   read more

If Americans dislike Congress now, what will they think if its size increased by 245 lawmakers? Some political reformers argue that, no matter how frustrating the U.S. House might be now, it needs to expand in size. After all, the last time the number of representatives—currently at 435—changed was 1911. That was when the nation’s population was 93.9 million. Now, it’s up to 316.1 million, an increase of more than 200% over 100 years.   read more

An Afghan teacher, Odah was captured in the months after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001. He fled to Pakistan, where he was captured by bounty hunters and turned over to the U.S. military as a suspected member of al Qaeda. The U.S. government held to that story for years, and at one point declared Odah too dangerous to release. He became part of a group of detainees dubbed “forever prisoners” because American officials seemed determine to imprison him indefinitely without due process.   read more

TV stations raked in about $2.4 billion from commercials from federal, state and local races, eclipsing the total they enjoyed in 2010 by more than $100 million. This year, one Iowa television station, WHO-DT in Des Moines, actually added news programming in the afternoon partly so it would have a place to put all the campaign ads, many of which touted the campaign for the open Senate seat won Tuesday by Joni Ernst.   read more

Even customers who don’t use either provider can have their browsing monitored. If a user connects through a Verizon tower, their web use habits are subject to scrutiny as well. As many as 100 million people have had their internet browsing tracked by the two providers. 'Once installed, the supercookies cannot be deleted nor evaded, even if customers clear their cookies, use private browsing modes, disable third-party cookies, or select ‘Do Not Track’ in their settings."   read more

, polls showed Democrats to be slightly more popular than Republicans, 44% versus 40%. But that didn’t stop the onslaught of losses by Democratic candidates in battleground states. Voters were angry and they took it out on many incumbents, including some Senate Democrats who came into office in the Obama wave of 2008.   read more

Fort Lauderdale has cited its first violators—two ministers and a 90-year-old man—of a new ordinance that prohibits giving food to the homeless. Abbott, who has been helping the homeless in Fort Lauderdale for more than 20 years, was shocked by law enforcement’s response to the feeding. “One of the police officers said, ‘Drop that plate right now,’ as if I were carrying a weapon.”   read more

Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said agents approach community leaders at mosques with questions, and then pressure them to become informants. The FBI’s approach depends on the situation, according to CAIR lawyer Jennifer Wicks. “These visits aren’t based on people being suspected of doing anything wrong."   read more

Dr. Margaret Chan, director of the World Health Organization, said the drive for profits by drug makers prevented an Ebola vaccination solution from being available by now. “A profit-driven industry does not invest in products for markets that cannot pay,” she said. “WHO has been trying to make this issue visible for ages. Now people can see for themselves.” Chan has called the Ebola crisis “the most severe acute public health emergency seen in modern times.”   read more