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

Scientists determined that the United States saves about $6.8 billion a year in healthcare costs by having trees in cities. In 2010 alone, the country avoided 850 deaths and 670,000 cases of acute respiratory symptoms, the researchers led by forester Dave Nowak found, thanks to 17 tons of air pollution being removed from the atmosphere by trees.   read more

The suit claims that the Diebold voting machines have “incurable deficiencies…including an inability to secure it from even amateur level taint by fraudulent programming.” It also points out that the Diebold system that was employed in the contested election is used nowhere in the United States except for two counties in Tennessee, one of which is Shelby.   read more

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), using data reported in 2011, determined that 19.3% of women had been raped during their lifetimes. Forty-four percent have endured “other forms of sexual violence during their lifetimes." 79% of rape victims were attacked before the age of 25, with 40% of attacks occurring to those under 18.   read more

The Sunlight Foundation, an independent watchdog, found of the 5,575 people who have appeared or are scheduled to appear before House committees over the past two years, only 23% are women. The House Committee on Agriculture had the lowest rate (13%), while the highest belonged to the Committee on Education and the Workforce (40%). For the record, women comprise 51% of the U.S. population.   read more

Not surprisingly perhaps, these two states are also the nation’s most populous: California and Texas. The Lone Star State accounts for 16% of all jobs dependent on exports, the highest rate in the U.S., according to the Department of Commerce. California is second, with 11%. The two states make up 20% of the population of the United States.   read more

Only 28% of the U.S. workforce is currently employed by companies less than 16 years old, according to the Brookings Institution. Back in 1992, the figure was 40%. The authors concluded that the trend toward older businesses is “disturbing” because newer firms tend to be responsible for more innovations than older companies.   read more

“The money came from oil and building contracts in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates that allegedly violated U.S. laws, U.S. investigators told their Austrian counterparts,” Bloomberg’s Jonathan Tirone wrote. The investigation came to light when an Austrian blogger found documents in a trash bin that included a Justice Department document pertaining to the Khalilzad inquiry.   read more

The government-approved list includes more than 9,000 schools, including those specializing in beauty, massage, golf, acupuncture and flight training. It is each school’s responsibility to always know the whereabouts of their student visa-holders and to notify federal officials of chronic absences. Visa-holder Hanjour vanished from his classes prior to flying a jet into the Pentagon..   read more

In what may be the biggest battle yet in the fight to pass a tax on soft drinks, voters in Berkeley, California, will decide in November whether to adopt a one-cent-per-fluid-ounce tax on soda companies. But the industry, which has successfully defeated every soda tax effort in the country so far, is determined to keep Berkeley from becoming the first community to take this big step.   read more

The South Texas Family Detention Center, which will be located 70 miles outside San Antonio, would be operated by the nation’s largest private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). The land that ICE hopes to lease currently stands as a fenced campus capable of housing 680 people. Additional buildings would be constructed to handle the 2,400 detainees.   read more

The employees say they were exposed to toxic coal waste from the Gavin Plant Residual Waste Landfill in Cheshire in Gallia County. Further, the defendants allegedly assured their employees that the waste was harmless and even safe enough to eat—despite the presence of arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, cobalt, lead, and thalium.   read more

The ruling (pdf) comes in the case of the twin cities of Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah. The Colorado City Marshal’s Office and the Hildale City Police Department were found to have taken orders from the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a Mormon sect practicing polygamy.   read more

Using a program developed to combat drug trafficking, local governments across the United States have boosted their budgets with monies and property forfeited by individuals who were never charged with breaking the law. Cities and counties have pocketed more than $1.7 billion since 2001 through the federal Equitable Sharing Program, which encourages local police to stop citizens and seize their possessions, even if they haven’t been proven to having done anything wrong.   read more

From 2001 to 2012, “black people suffered over five times as many nonfatal injuries per capita from law enforcement as white people did cumulatively,” Damian Ortellado wrote for the Sunlight Foundation. For black men, the injury rate per 100,000 people came out to 117, while for white men it was 21 per 100,000. In fact, white men had fewer total injuries than black men despite being involved in five times as many police incidents.   read more

Under the terms of a 1945 agreement, Mexico and Texas are supposed to send each other a certain amount of water. Texas’ share comes from the Colorado River, while Mexico’s originates along the Rio Grande. Each year, Mexico’s allotment is supposed to total 350,000 acre feet (one acre-foot of water is equivalent to 326,700 gallons). But the country has fallen behind on its deliveries, and currently owes 380,000 acre-feet to the U.S.   read more

The gender pay gap, which had been shrinking for 25 years, has stalled since 2003. Women who have never been married earn 96% of what men earn, but for married women the number is only 77%. The problem is worst among low-income women. They have fewer benefits, less access to child care and so are more likely to cut their hours or quit work altogether after having a child.   read more