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 Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a little-known government watchdog of Wall Street, has been more than earning its keep.   Last fiscal year, the CFTC levied more than $290 million in fines and ordered firms to forfeit some $160...   read more

U.S. Representative Jared Polis has become the first gay member of congress to become a parent. Polis, a Democrat from Colorado, and his partner, Marlon Reis, announced the birth of their son, Caspian Julius, on October 1. It was not reported if...   read more

Experienced in both nuclear and economic issues, Kenneth J. Fairfax was finally approved by the United States Senate to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan. The former Soviet republic has been a focus of ongoing efforts to safeguard nuclear...   read more

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been secretly working on technology that can tip off law enforcement about those planning to commit a crime.   Part profiling, part advanced mathematics, the Future Attribute Screening Technology (...   read more

Republican Lamar Smith of Texas wants to outlaw the use of—or even just the planning of use of—drugs by Americans even if the activity occurs in another country where it’s legal.   U.S. prosecutors could bring conspiracy charges against anyone...   read more

Mexico’s crackdown on drug cartels has pushed more organized crime into Central America, turning Honduras and other countries into killing zones.   According to a new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Honduras has the w...   read more

The nomination of President Obama’s choice to be next ambassador to Nicaragua is in doubt over criticism leveled by two Cuban-American Senators, Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) and Mario Rubio (R-Florida), regarding Cuba policy. Jonathan D. Farrar, ...   read more

The ambassador of Georgia to the United States since November 2010, Temuri Yakobashvili, is a long-time senior government official who comes from a Jewish family. Unusually for a diplomat, in his youth Yakobashvili was arrested several times for...   read more

Dr. Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who aided the U.S. effort to locate Osama bin Laden, faces the possibility of being tried for treason by Pakistan’s government.   A special panel charged with investigating the U.S. raid in May that kill...   read more

The civil case against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for destroying 92 videotapes containing footage of detainees being interrogated and tortured has run its course, with a federal judge refusing to punish the spy agency for its “transgr...   read more

State Representative Ritch Workman of Florida (R-Melbourne) is looking out for the little people, he says, by seeking to overturn a law that bans dwarf tossing in bars.   The chucking of dwarfs was big in Florida in the 1980s, after carnival w...   read more

The United States in August 2011 sent experienced senior diplomat Anne W. Patterson to be the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt as its revolution continues to develop and, potentially, affect American interests. Born on October 4, 1949, in Fort Smith, Ar...   read more

In June 2011, President Barack Obama nominated diplomat Thomas C. Krajeski to be the U.S. ambassador to Bahrain. Krajeski has spent much of his career serving in the Middle East and Persian Gulf regions, including two stints in Iraq. He received...   read more

Nothing officially exists to legally justify its purpose or to record its decisions, but a secretive panel in the Obama White House does operate—and with the authority to recommend the assassination of Americans who side with terrorist organizat...   read more

Thirteen banks and mortgage companies are being sued for allegedly perpetrating a “massive fraud” on veterans by charging them hidden fees forbidden under federal law.   Two mortgage brokers brought the lawsuit after they were told by banks no...   read more

The political decision to crack down on illegal immigration in Georgia may end up costing the state’s agricultural sector nearly $400 million, due to a lack of farmworkers.   Farmers complained after the Republican-controlled legislature passe...   read more