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

“One in 10 children in Nebraska have a parent who is behind bars,” according to the report. Coincidentally, or not, “One in 10 Nebraskans are people of color,” the study notes. However, “More than five in 10 Nebraskans in jail pretrial are people of color. Before they even get to trial, Nebraska defendants charged with nonviolent offenses spend an average of 48 days behind bars. This research shows a clear and disturbing overrepresentation of people of color behind bars in Nebraska as well.”   read more

The costs to whistleblowers are high; they often face retaliation and are unable to find work because they are blackballed. These very real perils underscore the significance of new research that found a sharp and lasting drop in financial wrongdoing at companies that were subject to whistleblower investigations. “Following the allegations,” said the study, “whistleblower firms are significantly more likely to experience a decrease in the incidence of accounting irregularities."   read more

The Times Union of Albany reports that a caller told police there was an elderly woman "frozen to death" in a parked car. Officers rushed to the scene and found what appeared to be a woman sitting in a car's front passenger seat wearing an oxygen mask. A sergeant busted a rear window, opened the door and discovered that the woman was a realistic mannequin.   read more

Lucas’ first assignment in the United States came in 1995, when she was named deputy permanent representative to the United Nations in New York. She served there until 2000, when she returned to Luxembourg as the ministry’s deputy director for political affairs. Lucas got her first ambassadorial assignment, to Portugal with concurrent accreditation to Cabo Verde in 2003. She returned home the following year to serve as director for political affairs.   read more

With the election of Donald Trump, there was immediate concern inside NASA about the future of the agency’s earth-science program. Within hours of Trump’s acceptance speech on Nov. 9, an internal email circulated within NASA acknowledging worry that “funding may now be exposed to severe reductions.” Trump's space policy advisor is pushing to take climate science out of NASA, and his NASA transition chief has strong skepticism about the severity of global warming.   read more

The price of Narcan -- the lifesaving heroin-overdose antidote that revives the dying -- has skyrocketed, with one formulation rising more than 500% in two years. Although Narcan first hit the market in 1971, demand has skyrocketed as the opioid epidemic worsens. And with more potent opioids on the street -- such as fentanyl -- first responders, the largest consumers of the drug, are finding they need multiple doses to revive overdose victims.   read more

They represent some of the more serious misconduct concerns faced by the military. And they underscore the fact that transgressions are occurring in the higher ranks. Sexual misconduct — which includes assault, harassment and improper affairs — and professional retaliation have long been identified by the Pentagon. Reprisal is the "number one allegation" that the inspector general's office investigates. "This is very concerning," said the memo sent last month to top Army leaders.   read more

“We’re talking about changing the rules at the last minute,” Hughes said. Dallas Woodhouse, the Republican official, eventually fled into the building, where lawmakers from his party introduced a flurry of bills during a surprise special session this week to undermine Cooper by stripping him of his ability to make key appointments to state and local boards and mandating, for the first time, legislative approval of his Cabinet. “They will see me in court,” Cooper warned.   read more

The judge blocked an executive order offering protections to LGBT employees in state government as unconstitutional. Judge Hernandez ruled that Gov. Edwards acted outside the scope of his authority when he created the anti-discrimination law. “We continue to believe that discrimination is not a Louisiana value and that we are best served as a state when employment decisions are based solely on an individual’s qualifications and job performance,” the governor said   read more

“It was like I was standing out there naked,” said Annette Taddeo, a Democrat who lost her primary race after secret campaign documents were made public. The impact of information released by hackers on candidates in nearly a dozen House races around the country was largely lost in the focus on the hacking attacks against the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. But this untold story underscores the effect the Russian operation had on the American electoral system.   read more

An Energy Dept official called the 74 questions a hit list and said Trump's team appeared to be going after top scientists and employees working on the Iran nuclear deal and climate change. Some questions left DOE workers "unsettled," and others could cast doubt on Trump's commitment to scientific independence — a fundamental tenet at the agency. Democrats called the questionairre a modern-day political witch hunt that could have a chilling impact on federal workers.   read more

The report, the largest and most comprehensive of its kind to date on the effects of fracking on water supply, comes as President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to expand fracking and roll back existing regulations on the process. His choice to run the EPA, Scott Pruitt, attorney general from Oklahoma, has built his career on fighting EPA regulations on energy exploration. He now faces scientific findings that urge caution in an energy sector that Trump wants to untether.   read more

Gov. Christie has made no secret of his disdain for the news media. The bill would eliminate requirement for public notices, which could cost already-strapped newspapers millions in ad revenue. “It’s a broadside against a free press, nothing more, nothing less,” said Assemblyman Wisniewsk. “I think it’s revenge.” Legal notices are a longstanding tradition in America, dating back more than 200 years.   read more

The lawsuit "seeks public disclosure of specified government records to make sense of the pivotal role of the FBI, as well as of other agencies, in perhaps the most controversial presidential election in modern U.S. history.” It notes that several people have credited the FBI, which claims to be apolitical, with swinging the election in Donald Trump’s favor. The suit comes on the heels of CIA accusations that Russia interfered with the U.S. election to sway it in favor of Trump.   read more

While Tillerson's not a diplomat, he has an agenda overseas that doesn't always mesh with the U.S. government. His willingness to cut a deal regardless of the political consequences speaks volumes about Exxon Mobil’s influence. In Iraq, Tillerson and his company outmaneuvered the State Dept, which he has now been nominated by Trump to lead. “[Exxon and Tillerson] are very powerful in the region, and they couldn’t care less about what the State Dept wants to do,” said Atlantic Council's Seznec.   read more

Perry was a harsh critic of Trump, even calling the billionaire businessman a "cancer to conservatism," but later endorsed him. Perry has been a vocal skeptic on climate change and is likely to shift the department away from renewable energy and toward oil and other fossil fuels. Sierra Club's Michael Brune called it "an insult to our functioning democracy. Putting Perry in charge of the Department of Energy is the perfect way to ensure the agency fails at everything it is charged to do."   read more