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

A White House campaign to help military families has hit a new milestone: All 50 states have eased the requirements for military spouses whose careers require a professional license. Michelle Obama said just three states accepted licenses from other states when she and Jill Biden launched a broader initiative in 2011 to help military families. Mrs. Obama and Jill Biden asked the nation's governors in 2011 to streamline licensing requirements. Nearly half of the states had done so by 2012.   read more

The misconduct involved psychiatrists seducing the emotionally fragile; doctors fondling minors; anesthesiologists molesting sedated patients; obstetricians raping women. They include some of the country's most accomplished physicians, including the doctor for a basketball franchise, the president of a medical society, and pioneering researchers. The scale and scope of misdeeds varied from lewd comments during intimate exams, to rapes of mentally and physically disabled patients.   read more

Many of the people who already live in Boulder would prefer that the newcomers settle somewhere else. “The experience of being in Boulder...has to do with being able to go to this meadow and it isn’t just littered with human beings,” said Pomerance. All of Boulder’s charms are under threat, he said. People now worry that growth is killing the place they love. But a growing body of literature suggests that anti-growth sentiment is a major factor in creating a stagnant and less equal U.S. economy.   read more

When her mother returned, Padron couldn't even sit in her wheelchair. She was left to lie in bed for about 165 hours a week — without specialized services, including physical therapies. She eventually was unable to straighten her wrists, ankles, shoulders, legs or hips and developed a spine deformity, court records show. She was 29 when she died. Texas was ranked in the bottom one third of states for the comprehensiveness of evaluations conducted on intellectually-disabled patients.   read more

"Much of the information upon which File 17 was written was based on what's in the 28 pages," said former Sen. Bob Graham. He believes the hijackers had an extensive Saudi support system while they were in the U.S.: "File 17 said, 'Here are some additional unanswered questions and here is how we think the 9/11 Commission, the FBI and the CIA should go about finding the answers.' " Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir denies allegations of Saudi complicity, saying that there is "no there there."   read more

The nation's Asian population grew at 3.4% between July 2014 and 2015, with migration responsible for the majority of the growth, government officials said. There are now 21 million Asians in the U.S., with Hawaii as the nation's only majority Asian state. Asians have been the fastest-growing race group since about 2000, and the main driving force is international migration. In 2013, China replaced Mexico as the top sending country for immigrants to the U.S.   read more

Two years after a scandal, the VA still has "profound deficiencies" in delivering health care to millions of veterans. The panel says the VA needs to improve its service to veterans, adding that it "require[s] urgent reform." Congress created the commission after approving a law overhauling the VA in the wake of the wait-time scandal, which involved a cover-up with false paperwork and secret waiting lists. As many as 40 veterans died while awaiting care at the Phoenix VA.   read more

The promotion for military-led Thailand could ease tensions with the U.S., its longtime ally. The Thai government reported an increase in prosecutions and convictions for trafficking and had lobbied hard for an upgrade after two years on the lowest ranking, which it had shared with the likes of North Korea and Syria. It is now on the "tier 2 watch list," which is for governments that do not fully meet the minimum standards of combating trafficking but are making significant efforts to do so.   read more

Take a deep breath. Count to 10. What you have is tech support rage. And you are not alone. Getting caught in a tech support loop — waiting on hold, interacting with automated systems, talking to people reading from unhelpful scripts and then finding yourself on hold yet again — is a peculiar kind of aggravation that mental health experts say can provoke rage in even the most mild-mannered person. Worse, just as you suspected, companies are aware of the torture they are putting you through.   read more

New Jersey’s loans, which currently total $1.9 billion, are unlike those of any other government lending program for students in the country. They come with extraordinarily stringent rules that can easily lead to financial ruin. Repayments cannot be adjusted based on income, and borrowers who are facing financial hardships are given few breaks. Most significantly, the loans come with a cudgel that even the most predatory for-profit players cannot wield: the power of the state.   read more

Thursday's report from the CDC is perhaps the largest U.S. study to compare suicide rates among occupations. It didn't explore the reasons behind the differences, but researchers found the highest suicide rates in manual laborers who work in isolation and face unsteady employment. High rates were also seen in carpenters, miners, and electricians. Dentists, doctors and other health care professionals had an 80 percent lower suicide rate than the farmers, fishermen and lumberjacks.   read more

The DEA has been ordered to release a list of other government agencies that use the so-called Hemisphere Project—a secret program started in 2007 in which the U.S. government collects data on nearly four billion telephone calls a day. However, the bulk of the requested documents sought by privacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center —including other possible private corporations besides AT&T that cooperate with the government on the program— remain under lock and key.   read more

A worker at a federal lab intentionally manipulated test results for years, possibly tainting research on toxic metals in the Everglades, uranium near the Grand Canyon and coal in Afghanistan. The manipulation occurred between 2008 and 2014 at the USGS Energy Geochemistry Laboratory in the Denver suburb of Lakewood. "We can only hope that this incident won't have a long-lasting effect on the agency's reputation," said USGS's Wade.   read more

Albania’s Prime Minister Rama was accused of illegally funneling $80,000 to President Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012 in return for a photograph of the two men together. Rama proudly used the picture at the time to show his affinity to Obama, only months before the parliamentary elections. “Premier Rama has no connection with any kind of illegal funding and the only ‘crime’ he committed in 2012 is that he had a picture with the U.S. president..." said Rama’s office.   read more

In one emotional exchange, Army vet Reginald Russell Sr. rose from the audience and accused the VA of ignoring anecdotal evidence that Agent Orange had harmed children of vets. Russell’s first son, born shortly after he returned from Vietnam in 1971, died inexplicably at 9 months old. His youngest son, born a few years later with a heart defect, died in 2012 at 32. Russell held up a photo of a grave marker: “That’s my child,” he said, choking up.   read more

The scientists note that neurodevelopmental disorders are complex and have multiple genetic, social and environmental causes. But most chemicals in use today were not adequately tested for safety before being allowed on the market, said Dr. Jeanne Conry. “Before we can prescribe medicine, we have to prove it’s safe,” she said. “So how come with the chemical industry, we assume everything is safe and have to prove there’s harm?”   read more