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

Facebook and Twitter have been exposing millions of Americans to false stories. The contraction in the reporting corps, with the success of disinformation this year, is making for some sleepless nights in this fake-news environment. “It’s the biggest crisis facing our democracy, the failing business model of real journalism,” said Sen. McCaskill. “If you have a society where people can’t agree on basic facts, how do you have a functioning democracy?” said Post editor Baron.   read more

This technology raises issues of civil liberties, as digital information provided by social media is combined with criminal data by companies that sell it to law enforcement. The ACLU, citing reports that the Chicago Police used a computer analysis to create a “heat list” that unfairly associated innocent people with criminal behavior, has warned about the dangers of the police using big data. Even companies that make money doing this sort of work warn that it comes with civil rights risks.   read more

The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday reinstated an Arizona law that makes it a felony to collect early ballots, stepping into a contentious political issue days before the presidential election and hurting Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts. The ruling called into question what happens to ballots that were legally collected from voters in the 20 hours that the law was blocked. The GOP chairman said the the ballots should be returned. Democrats say the law hurts minorities' ability to vote.   read more

There’s no way to quantify exactly how many times the field tests were wrong or how many innocent people pleaded guilty based on the inaccurate results, or to assess the damage to their lives. What is clear is that even as they continue to employ field tests to secure arrests and gain convictions, neither the Las Vegas Police nor the DA’s office has informed local judges of the long-standing knowledge of their unreliability. And neither has taken any additional steps to prevent mistakes.   read more

A death row inmate may be alive today because a transgender Virginia student was denied the use of the bathroom of his choice this year. The two seemingly unrelated cases have one thing in common: In each, a Supreme Court justice switched sides to provide a needed fifth vote to preserve the status quo. Justice Breyer broke with liberal colleagues to provide "a courtesy vote" to four conservative justices. Chief Justice Roberts did a similar favor, switching sides to vote in another case.   read more

The grocery trade group hid donor contributions to oppose a voter measure that required labeling of genetically modified organisms. It spent $11 million to defeat the initiative, but refused to reveal actual donors such as Coke, Pepsi and Nestle. The entire scheme was concocted to bypass election disclosure rules. Hirsch said the testimony of GMA trade group CEO Pamela Bailey was vague and "combative" during hearings. The fine is the largest campaign-finance penalty in U.S. history.   read more

Anderson says a particularly toxic strain of pesticides known as neonicotinoids has killed hundreds of thousands of bees in recent years. He says the EPA has failed to regulate neonicotinoids, even though it is required by law to do so. Alsup suggested that the government could be withholding relevant documents, based on his prior experience as a Justice Dept attorney, when he routinely witnessed government lawyers try to exclude pertinent files from disclosure in lawsuits.   read more

The number is an extreme data point in an accumulating body of evidence that young adolescents are suffering from a range of health problems associated with the country’s rapidly changing culture. The pervasiveness of social networking means that entire schools can witness someone’s shame, instead of a gaggle of girls on a school bus. And with continual access to such networks, those pressures do not end when a child comes home in the afternoon.   read more

For years, scientists have noted that, in many fields, the most electrifying work comes earlier in life rather than later. Now, a big-data analysis finds a host of factors that have nothing to do with age or early stardom. It is, they suggest, a combination of personality, persistence and pure luck, as well as intelligence, that leads to high-impact success — at any age. It was entirely because of productivity: scientists were as likely to score a hit at age 50 as at age 25.   read more

In 2001, Vives Balmaña was named head of protocol and administrative affairs for the Conseil General, the country’s legislature, a position she held until 2015. In 2012, she also took on the presidency of the Andorran National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Vives Balmaña was named Andorra’s representative to the United Nations in 2015 and added the U.S., Canada and Mexico to her portfolio the following year.   read more

Big-money corporate lobbying has reached into one of the most obscure corners of state government: the offices of secretaries of state, the people charged with running elections impartially. Targeting them with campaign donations, weekend outings and secret meetings with industry lobbyists reflects an intense focus on often overlooked ballot questions, which the secretaries frequently help write. A difference of even a few words on a ballot measure can have an enormous impact on the outcome.   read more

DNA data is run through algorithms to calculate the likelihood that a person’s DNA is present in a mixture. Developers say they remove human bias from the equation, delivering accurate results. But critics worry that they undermine an important aspect of due process. The accused, defense attorneys, and judges don’t have access to the tools’ proprietary inner workings and, thus, the ability to question their conclusions. As one attorney wrote, “The Petitioner cannot cross-examine a computer.”   read more

La Guardia Airport, famously described by Vice President Joe Biden in 2014 as akin to what one would find “in a Third World country,” ranked as the worst. Right behind it were JFK International and Newark Liberty. La Guardia had the highest rate of flight delays and cancellations, the second-longest drive time to the center of the city and steep parking rates. JFK had the longest drive time and longest security waits. Newark had “lackluster ratings across the board.”   read more

Voters reported waiting for more than two hours. The long wait time was largely due to limited staff and equipment to handle the unexpectedly large crowd. Voters have to fill out a slip before getting their ballot printed out. There was only one computer, one printer and a couple of workers assigned to the site. Three other sites — in Scottsdale, Tempe and Mesa — were similarly busy. Voters endured waits of more than five hours in the March primary.   read more

Varricchio’s first ambassadorial post came in 2009, when he was sent to Belgrade, Serbia. While there, he advocated for Serbian membership in the European Union. By 2016, that country was a candidate member. He returned to Italy in 2012 as deputy secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The following year, he was made diplomatic adviser to Prime Minister Enrico Letta.   read more

The top 1% of earners managed to increase their share of the nation's income at about the same pace after their taxes were raised as they had before, according to a study that taps into a key debate in the current presidential race. That outcome suggests that wealthier Americans did not respond to the higher taxes by either working less or saving less, as many economists often say will happen. "The 2013 tax hike had no discernable negative effect on economic growth," Saez said.   read more