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 closures were prompted by the law’s new requirements that abortion clinics meet the same building regulations as surgical centers. Clinic defenders called it a veiled effort by conservatives to deny women the choice of aborting pregnancies. The “ruling has gutted Texas women’s constitutional rights," said Nancy Northup. "It is an endorsement of politicians’ disingenuous tactic of undermining women’s safety under the false pretext of protecting it.”   read more

Policymakers in Washington have a sticky situation on their hands involving all things honey related. The honey lobby wants the U.S. Department of Agriculture to adopt rules that clearly define what honey is and what it isn’t. Industry representatives also want the government to crack down on illegal imports of honey, known as honey laundering. Customs agents recently uncovered as part of “Project Honeygate” at least two American honey plants breaking the law   read more

Since taking over his country’s mission, much of his time has been spent protecting the interests of the immigrants, both children and adults, who have come to the United States from Honduras. He has traveled to South Texas and spoken with many Hondurans who have made the trip north. In June 2014, he implied that U.S. treatment of Hondurans who fled their country for the United States had violated “some norms reflected in international treaties.”   read more

Arouna moved to Goodworks International Consulting, a firm partly founded by former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, in January 2007. Goodworks is a lobbying firm, many of whose clients have interests in the oil industry. Arouna represented the nation of Cameroon. He was promoted to executive vice president in January 2013.   read more

Move over Saudi Arabia, there’s about to be a new king of liquid petroleum in the world: the United States. With U.S. production booming, experts predict Saudi Arabia will be surpassed in the production of oil, ethane, propane and other liquid fuels by its No. 2 rival this month or next American oil corporations have significantly increased oil production since last decade thanks to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and other developments in drilling technology.   read more

Pharmaceutical manufacturers and device companies issued 4.4 million payments to more than 500,000 health care professionals that totaled $3.5 billion, during the last half of 2013. “The main goal is to influence prescribing practices,” said Dr. Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. “The interest of those companies is to improve their financial bottom line, and not necessarily represent the best interest of patients.”   read more

The drought that has afflicted California and the West over the past several years is at least partly due to global warming, according to a new study, and among its victims are 14 communities that could run out of water by the year's end. ACWA executive director Tim Quinn said the list could grow and include larger cities. “If this drought keeps on going, some larger, more sophisticated communities are going to be in trouble next year,” he said.   read more

The U.S. military’s hospitals recently graded out at about a “C,” according to a study released Wednesday, which in the eyes of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is failing and he has ordered improvements to be made. Hagel said he expects the system of 54 hospitals and hundreds of clinics serving defense personnel to improve services in many key areas. They have 30 to 90 days to explain how they plan to do it.   read more

The Easton Area School District imposed a ban four years ago on students wearing breast cancer awareness bracelets that read: “I ♥ Boobies! (Keep a Breast)” Two students, Brianna Hawk and Kayla Martinez, challenged the prohibition with the help of the ACLU, twice winning in federal court. Once the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the district’s appeal, the ACLU negotiated a settlement of $385,000 with the school district to pay the lawyers who worked on the case.   read more

The idea is not unlike the plot of the blockbuster movie “Armageddon,” in which the U.S. government sent a team into space with a nuclear weapon to blast apart an asteroid heading towards earth. There are about 100,000 asteroids 50 meters or larger in space, so officials think it’s better to be safe than sorry. It would take a 100-meter space rock to destroy a city the size of Washington, D.C. Last year a small asteroid shot over Russia and blew up with a force equal to 400 tons of TNT.   read more

Conservatives in Ohio and across the nation won a victory from the U.S. Supreme Court this week when it restored new restrictions on early voting in the state. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted sought to roll back early voting before Election Day. Republicans claim the changes will combat voter fraud, but there's no evidence that would happen. Voting rights organizations accuse Republicans of trying to disenfranchise minorities by restricting access to casting their ballots.   read more

Secret Service director Julia Pierson resigned Wednesday following the revelation of another embarrassing lapse in presidential security—a man with multiple convictions for violent crime was allowed to ride in an elevator with President Barack Obama while carrying a concealed handgun. The president got into an elevator with Secret Service agents along with a private security contractor. The contractor acted oddly and ignored requests to stop filming Obama with his cellphone camera.   read more

College campuses across California will soon have to adopt “yes means yes” policies to thwart sexual assaults, under a new law signed by Governor Jerry Brown. But some are uncertain the legislation will be effective. Some schools that have embraced an affirmative consent policy claim the approach has produced positive results. “Culture change is generally slow, but we have made some headway” since the plan went into effect at the University of Texas at Austin, said Jane Bost.   read more

Numerous environmental groups have called on Governor Earl Ray Tomblin to scrap fracking in sensitive areas. They argue drilling in the river could result in contamination and cut off the drinking water of millions of residents. In January, a huge chemical spill left 300,000 West Virginians without drinking water for days. “Another large-scale water contamination ...could be devastating for [our] economy and reputation, not to mention the human health costs,” the groups wrote to Tomblin   read more

Attorney General Eric Holder may have announced his resignation, but that doesn’t mean he’s mailing in his final days on the job. On the contrary, the Department of Justice is now preparing a major policy change that will forbid federal law enforcement from profiling based on religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation. The new guidelines will not contain an exemption for terrorism despite pressure from national security officials and others in the Obama administration for one.   read more

Big Tobacco discouraging Americans from buying its unhealthy products? Stanford professor Dr. Robert K. Jackler said he “nearly fell off my chair” when he saw the warnings on the e-cigarette packs. “Is this part of a noble effort for the betterment of public health, or a cynical business strategy? I suspect the latter.” The strategy might be intended to "curry favor with consumers” in order to “earn a kind of legitimacy [they've] sought for decades."   read more