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

Environmental groups accused the USDA of violating the law by issuing a rule change to its organic standard that allowed organic farmers to use compost with synthetic chemicals without notifying the public. Before the rule change was issued, national organic food regulations banned synthetic substances in compost unless they were on an approved list. "It was more than a slap on the wrist to have [it] remanded," said CFS's Van Saun. "Now it remains to be seen what USDA will do with this."   read more

The concerns are fueling a debate in the industry over whether the test items were sufficiently vetted for gender bias, and whether the exam was unfair to female students. The two item posed what some test-prep experts considered a textbook example of “stereotype threat.” When people are reminded during a test of a negative stereotype about their race or sex, psychologists say, it creates a kind of test anxiety that leads them to underperform.   read more

Defense Secretary Ash Carter has called the regulation outdated and harmful to the military. A year ago, he directed officials from all the military branches to determine what changes would be needed to lift the ban. A study found that letting transgender members openly serve would cost little and would have no significant impact on unit readiness. It estimated that 2,450 active-duty members of the military were transgender.   read more

“Why this love affair in this country with lengthy incarceration, to our great embarrassment as a civilized nation?” he asked. He confessed to wanting to “scream out in frustration, sadness and anger” at being forced by Congress to impose mandatory sentences on many defendants. He said most criminals are “not evil incarnate” but rather act out of “weakness, need, sometimes desperation. So many...are without schooling, skills, hope or direction, and no term of years is going to change that.”   read more

The investigation revealed that more than 200 strikes, most by drones, have been conducted to defend ground forces battling a rising insurgency, despite the fact that combat missions came to an end in 2014. These strikes represent more than 60% of all US airstrikes in the country. This suggests the US has been drawn quietly yet significantly into fighting the Taliban-led insurgency. Washington has appeared to make its airwar against the Taliban official by relaxing its rules in Afghanistan.   read more

What was encouraging about the court decision, experts said, was that in affirming the value of diversity, the court recognized there was not one, immutable way of defining and achieving it. “I think today’s decision is about deference,"said ACE VP Peter McDonough. "It’s not about dictating. I think it’s about the continuing recognition that our country’s campuses are laboratories for experimentation and that the formula for diversity does remain elusive. It changes over time.”   read more

The industry lobbying group is backing the senators' deal. It opposes mandatory labeling but advocates for electronic labels. Labeling advocates frown on digital labels, saying they discriminate against those without smartphones or computers. "This proposal falls short of what consumers rightly expect — a simple at-a-glance disclosure on the package," said Hirshberg. Sen. Bernie Sanders said he'd do "everything I can" to defeat it. "People have a right to know what is in the food they eat."   read more

"I'm going to continue to demand accountability to ensure the manufacturers of these powerful prescription drugs aren't having an undue influence on policies designed to reduce their usage," said Wyden. Two panelists work for a non-profit which receives funding from drugmakers, including OxyContin-maker Purdue, which donated $100,000 to the organization in 2013. One panelist holds a chair at the center and the other received more than $8,660 in fees and accomodations from pain drugmakers.   read more

A Tennessee woman slipped into a coma and died after an ambulance company took so long that one worker took a cigarette break. A man watched a fire burn his house to the ground as he waited for the fire department, which billed him anyway and then sued him for $15,000 when he didn't pay. In each of these cases, someone dialed 911 and Wall Street answered. This approach creates a fundamental tension: the push to turn a profit while caring for people in their most vulnerable moments.   read more

Two New York City police unions failed to convince a state appellate court that a law prohibiting controversial stop-and-frisk tactics is at odds with longstanding criminal procedure rules. A law prohibited law enforcement officers from engaging in racial or ethnic profiling — i.e. basing police action on race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Yet the law didn't provide any enforcement mechanism, like a cause of action against individual officers.   read more

Carlton Palms has faced enormous criticism in recent years after a series of incidents involving abuse by staff and the death of a 14-year-old autistic girl from dehydration after a night in which she was at times strapped to a bed while vomiting repeatedly. Carlton's workers have relied for years on mechanical restraints, such as ankle shackles and a device similar to a full-body straight jacket. Carlton’s staff used restraints roughly 28,000 times in less than five years, records showed.   read more

Arsenic exposure raises the inmates' cancer risk and the prison does not have air-conditioning in inmate housing areas, so officials recommend that the inmates, many of whom suffer from health problems and take medication that make them heat-sensitive, drink lots of water to fend off heat stroke. "At least 20 prisoners have died indoors in non-air-conditioned TDCJ prisons from hyperthermia since 1998. ... Ten inmates died of heatstroke in 2011 while in TDCJ custody," the June 21 order states.   read more

In 2005, Hrle moved to the embassy in Vienna, Austria and served as chargé d’affaires, becoming ambassador in 2008. While he was in charge there, a Bosnian general, Jovan Divjak, who had been accused of war crimes by Serbia, was arrested in Vienna. Divjak was eventually released without being extradited to Serbia. Hrle returned home in 2011 to work in the ministry’s office of public relations. In 2013, he was made ambassador to Saudi Arabia with responsibility for Oman and Yemen as well.   read more

Fistfights at campaign rallies. A congressional sit-in. Angry political trolling on the internet. It’s not your imagination: America’s partisan divide is deeper today than at any point in nearly a quarter-century, says a new study. The Republican Party strikes fear in the hearts of 55% of Democrats surveyed, Pew found. Among Republicans, 49% felt the same way about the Democratic Party. “It’s really this intensity of negativity that’s increased,” said Pew report author Carroll Doherty.   read more

Among all ages, there were nearly 19,000 fatal overdoses on prescription opioids in 2014. The magnitude of its use among seniors is "astounding," said Frederic Blow. "It's not just a young person's problem," he said. Overdose risk for older Americans is heightened by medication interactions and alcohol. There were about 40 million prescriptions for these drugs last year," said lead study author Miriam Anderson. "That's enough to give one to every Medicare beneficiary in the country."   read more

Rap Back is a service of the FBI that provides continuous criminal-record monitoring for law-enforcement. When a Hawaii firearm owner is arrested for a criminal offense anywhere in the country, the service alerts county police departments in Hawaii. Law enforcement then will be able to evaluate whether that gun owner may continue to legally possess firearms. "This system will better enable our law enforcement agencies to ensure the security of all Hawaii residents and visitors," said Gov. Ige.   read more