UNDERNEWS
Online report of the Progressive Review. Since 1964, the news while there's still time to do something about it.
February 13, 2025
Trump bars Associated Press
The danger of a Trump majority in the Superme Court
The Nation - Trump’s reelection gives the Republicans a chance to do something even more extreme with the Supreme Court: to make their judicial control permanent. Backed by a healthy majority in the Senate, the Republicans can swap out their oldest justices for younger blood, entrenching their dystopian view that the Constitution confers unlimited rights to gun owners and nobody else. And if the feckless gods decree that one of the Democratic justices should succumb to the ultimate law of nature during the next four years, the Republicans will be able to appoint their replacement as well, giving them a 7–2 majority.
In the case of either of these events, the Supreme Court will not just have a Republican majority by 2029, when Trump leaves office; it will likely have a Trump majority. Trump is now poised to become the first president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt to have appointed a majority of the justices on the Supreme Court. His justices will outlive him, and their impact on law and policy will outlast whatever temporary tragedies Trump brings forth through his executive orders.
Stupid Trump stuff
Time - The
State Department was planning to buy $400 million worth of “Armored
Tesla” later this year, according to its 2025 procurement forecast, a
document outlining projections of anticipated contracts, which was
published in December. But after reports emerged on Wednesday of the
potential for conflict of interest given Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s prominent role in the Trump Administration, the document was updated, removing mention of Tesla and changing the line item to “Armored Electric Vehicles” instead.
Protect Kamala Harris - House Republicans have officially introduced impeachment articles to remove Federal Judge Paul Engelmayer after his ruling that protected our private data from Elon Musk.
NPR - An apparent attempt by the U.S. Census Bureau to follow an executive
order by President Trump targeting gender identity led to the public
losing access for days to certain key statistics. Close to two weeks after users first noticed many parts of the bureau's website — like those of other agencies — had gone dark, the federal government's largest statistical agency has yet to make any public statement about the disappearing data and research, at least some of which now appears to be restored. The lack of an official explanation from the bureau — known for
producing closely monitored indicators about the U.S. population and
economy — is raising concerns among data users about threats to public
trust in the agency and its independence from political interference, as
Elon Musk's team within the Trump administration known as the
Department of Government Efficiency seek data access at multiple
agencies, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Donald Trump update
Newsweek - A survey from The Economist/YouGov released Wednesday revealed the president's net favorability rating among those aged 18-29 is minus 18 points. This is a drop from the plus 19 favorable rating he scored among this demographic in the days following November's race... Trump made significant gains among young and first-time voters in the 2024 election compared to 2020. This was cited as a potential ideological shift for the youth vote. The poll results suggest Republicans cannot rely on this historically Democratic-leaning voting bloc for support in future elections.
NBC News - Republican lawmakers voiced support for President Donald Trump’s vast spending cuts in the first weeks of his second administration — but now that the pain is hitting home, they’ve started to push back. Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama recently pushed back on the administration’s funding restrictions under the National Institutes of Health. The state’s largest employer, the University of Alabama, is a major recipient of that money. GOP senators Susan Collins of Maine and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana also called out the cuts to NIH funding.
A coalition of Republicans in rural states and districts, including House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania, introduced legislation this week to save the Food for Peace program, in which the government buys and distributes American crops to help fight hunger around the world, by transferring it to the Department of Agriculture. USAID, the department targeted by Elon Musk, had administered the program.
Other Republicans, including Kentucky senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, have called out Trump’s plans to impose tariffs. The dynamic points to an upcoming challenge for Trump, as GOP lawmakers are the most important line of defense for his controversial orders. But if the president goes too far, they could use their legislative powers to stop him.
Federal judge calls Trump "bull in a china shop"
Newsweek - A federal judge has compared President Donald Trump to a "bull in a china shop" while reinstating special counsel Hampton Dellinger, whom Trump had fired...
Dellinger oversaw an office where federal employees could report wrongdoing and be afforded legal protection. In January, Trump, who has vowed to slash the federal budget and close agencies and entire departments, dismissed 17 inspectors general who served as independent watchdogs within federal agencies. Dellinger's firing would likewise help dismantle oversight within the federal government.
The paper vs plastic straw conflict
The British Independent has an analysis of the conflict between paper and plastic straws. It's more complicated than you may think. For example, " Paper straws are typically made from food-grade paper and adhesive. Nearly all glues are petroleum-based. Some paper straws are coated with wax and colored paper straws have dyes"
Your editor's solution to this issue is not to use straws at all, which has brought some workers at his favorite McDonald's to refer to him as "strawless Sam."
Trump regime update
The White House revoked the Associated Press’s access after the news agency refused to comply with censorship demands. AP’s executive editor condemned the move as a clear violation of the First Amendment.
New Republic - Mike Johnson and House Republicans on Wednesday released
their budget plan, which would raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion in
order to dole out $4.5 trillion in tax cuts to the wealthy. They also
threw in $2 trillion of compulsory cuts to Medicaid, which could make
health care even more expensive and inaccessible for large swathes of
America.
NBC News - A federal judge in Boston ruled that the Trump administration’s plan to offer mass buyouts for millions of federal workers to resign can move forward. About 75,000 employees accepted the offer, a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management said.
Meanwhile. . .
Despite having one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the country, Indiana Republicans advanced a bill to end a nearly 20-year-long law and ban student ID cards as an acceptable form of voter ID.
Support: 29%
Can Trump legally fire of those he has?
CNN - President Donald Trump’s purge at independent agencies is putting a target on a nearly 100-year-old Supreme Court precedent that protects certain officials from the political whims of the White House.
Since taking office four weeks ago, Trump has rapidly fired a member of the National Labor Relations Board, two commissioners charged with enforcing civil rights laws in the workplace and, most recently, the top federal official who handles government workers’ whistleblower complaints.
Some of the officials Trump is targeting enjoy protections in federal law that bar their removal without cause. But many conservatives – including some who sit on the Supreme Court – have chafed at the idea that a president can’t fire people in the executive branch at will.
The litigation is almost certain to queue up a Supreme Court case challenging a key 1935 precedent, Humphrey’s Executor v. US, that allows Congress to require presidents to show cause – such as malfeasance – before dismissing board members overseeing independent agencies.
Overturning that ruling would give presidents immense power to sweep away from service officials who enforce anti-trust laws, labor rules and disclosure requirements for publicly traded companies.
“Over a four-year horizon, I think Humphrey’s Executor is
destined for the graveyard,” predicted Dan Wolff, who leads the
administrative law litigation practice at the Crowell & Moring law
firm. “I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by saying there’s likely a
majority ready to overturn Humphrey’s Executor in the right case.”
Dealing with Trump if he ignore court rulings
CNN- Fears that the Trump administration might deliberately break into a pattern of not following judicial rulings with which it disagrees were amplified earlier this week when a federal judge in Rhode Island, for the second time, told the Trump administration it can’t cut off grant and loan payments after Democratic-led states complained that the administration wasn’t obeying the judge’s previous court order.
A day earlier, Vice President JD Vance also created a storm of criticism when he questioned in a post on X whether courts can block any of Trump’s agenda. “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” he wrote in part.
To be sure, such talk at the moment is just that, talk. And at the moment, the Justice Department has taken the usual approach of appealing to a higher court on preliminary injunctions that have blocked various executive actions.
Asked at the White House on Tuesday whether he’ll comply with court rulings, Trump said that he will.
“Well, I always abide by the courts, and then I’ll have to appeal it – but then what he’s done is he’s slowed down the momentum, and it gives crooked people more time to cover up the books,” Trump said. “So yeah, the answer is I always abide by the courts, always abide by them. And we’ll appeal, but appeals take a long time.”
The most likely response by a court if the administration were to defy its edict would be to hold the agency acting in defiance of an order or ruling in civil contempt, which would allow a judge to levy fines on the government for its non-compliance, experts told CNN.
“So you fine whoever the relevant defendant is, whether it’s secretary of the Treasury or some other official, and the fines escalate (as the non-compliance continues),” said Michael Dorf, a constitutional law professor at Cornell Law School.
But the issue with that, Dorf added, is that the agency or official might also ignore the imposed fines.
“If they’ve been willing to defy the order in the first place, they might be willing to defy the sanctions order,” he said.
Other formal sanctions by a court, though grounded in a deep history, also come with a host of potential problems when applied to the executive branch. Should a judge decide to pursue criminal contempt, for instance, it would need to be initiated by the Justice Department – meaning it’s highly unlikely given the president’s control over that department. The US Marshals Service, which enforces federal court orders, is also part of the Department of Justice.
“Judges are very leery of using that – and maybe appropriately so – because it’s such a hammer. The threat of sending somebody to jail is sort of a last resort,” said Carl Tobias, a constitutional law professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.
Judges holding government entities or officials in contempt is not unheard of. In 2021, US District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, DC, held the city’s jail in civil contempt but did not impose any sanctions. The judge, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, instead referred the jail to the Justice Department for potential civil rights violations after it failed to get treatment for a US Capitol rioter who needed surgery.
And presidents not complying with court orders, while novel, is also not unprecedented. Then-President Richard Nixon famously defied a court order to turn over White House tape recordings during the Watergate investigation. He ultimately did, but only after the Supreme Court ruled that he needed to hand them in.
David Cole, a Georgetown Law professor who has repeatedly argued cases before the Supreme Court on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, predicted that the most likely penalty a president would face for defying a court order would be political – not legal.
“The response,” Cole predicted, “would be to punish the Republican Party.”
But Cole noted that during Trump’s first term, the White House frequently lost major legal disputes, complained loudly about the judge who issued them and then did what every previous administration has done after losing: appeal.
Despite “a lot of norm-breaking,” Cole said he believed people are overreading Vance’s post on X and other past statements.
“If the president were to defy an order, it would cause a political firestorm,” Cole said. “And he knows that, and he’s therefore very unlikely to do it.”
Dorf said that the difference between how the Trump administration responded to adverse court rulings during the first term and now is “the complete acquiescence of congressional Republicans to Trump.”
That support, he said, forecloses the possibility that Congress might use its impeachment power to punish Trump or others for potential non-compliance with a court order.
Some Republicans this week have defended the role of the federal judiciary or pushed back on the idea that the White House might defy rulings hamstringing Trump’s agenda.
Among them is Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who said that he supports the “legitimacy of the federal judiciary” and the judicial process.
“I’ve disagreed with opinions before,” he said. “That’s why God made courts of appeal. That’s why God made the US Supreme Court.”
What Trump's already done
Robert B. Hubbell - Trump's second term is only three and a half weeks old. The press, politicians, and many Americans seem to have forgotten what happened two weeks ago. Here is a quick refresher of what Trump or his minions have done in 25 days:
Pardoned 1,500 insurrectionists who assisted Trump in his first attempted coup.
Converted the DOJ into his political hit squad by opening investigations into members of the DOJ, FBI, Congress, and state prosecutors’ offices who attempted to hold Trump to account for his crimes.
Fired a dozen inspectors general, whose job it is to identify fraud and corruption and to serve as a check on abuses of power by the president.
Fired dozens of prosecutors and FBI agents who worked on criminal cases relating to Trump
Fired dozens of prosecutors who worked on criminal cases against January 6 insurrectionists
Opened investigations into thousands of FBI agents who worked on cases against January 6 insurrectionists
Disbanded the FBI the group of agents designed to prevent foreign election interference in the US
Disbanded the DOJ group of prosecutors targeting Russian oligarchs’ criminal activity affecting the US
Fired the chairs and members of the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, and the Federal Election Commission and refused to replace them, effectively shutting down those independent boards in violation of statute
Shut down and defunded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Shut down and defunded USAID by placing virtually the entire staff of the agency on leave
Impounded billions of dollars of grants appropriated by Congress to USAID, National Institutes of Health, Department of Education, and the EPA, all in violation of Article I of the Constitution, which grants Congress the power to make appropriations
Allowed a group of hackers to seize control of large swaths of the federal government’s computer network by attaching unauthorized servers, changing and creating new computer code outside of federal security protocols, creating “backdoors” in secure systems, installing unsanctioned “AI” software to scrape federal data (including personal identification information), and installing “spyware” to monitor email of federal employees
Disobeyed multiple court orders to release frozen federal funds (an ongoing violation; see the NYTimes on Wednesday)
Granted a corrupt pardon to the Mayor of New York in exchange for his promise to cooperate in Trump's immigration crackdown
Mass deportation isn't working
Axios - President Trump's vow to deport "millions and millions" of unauthorized immigrants is meeting harsh reality and already stretching the limits of the government's resources less than four weeks into the new administration, Axios' Brittany Gibson writes.
- A lack of funds, detention space, officers and infrastructure to handle arrested immigrants is frustrating many involved in the effort — and made goals such as 1 million deportations this year seem unrealistic.
That urgency led the White House to ask Congress for an immediate infusion of $175 billion to help ICE acquire more detention space, boost staff and address other needs. "At the end of the day, we've gotta just spend money," Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said in a brief interview at the White House. "Unfortunately the American taxpayers are going to have to pay the bill on this." More
Black mothers hit by Trump war on DEI
Axios - Trump administration efforts to dismantle DEI initiatives are alarming public health researchers trying to reduce the outsized mortality rate for Black mothers in the U.S.
The pandemic put a spotlight on long-standing inequities in health care, including a pregnancy-related death rate for Black women that is more than three times the rate for white mothers. About 80% of these deaths are preventable. The concern is that President Trump's sweeping executive order could derail efforts to improve early diagnosis, treatment and prevention of pregnancy and birth complications, and data collection on maternal deaths.
Case in point: Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, an assistant dean and professor at Tufts University, receives NIH funding to research maternal health inequities among Black women. She hasn't heard anything from her contacts at NIH about the status of the grant since Trump's executive order, she said....
The push against DEI could also curtail opportunities for aspiring Black physicians, nurses, midwives and other health providers.
HHS Secretary-designate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he'd continue to address maternal mortality if confirmed, but he's been noncommittal about interventions to decrease racial disparities in maternal health. He refused to provide a yes or no answer when asked during a confirmation hearing whether he'd consider programs that target maternal mortality in Black women as "health DEI programs." More
Can courts force Trump to obey the law?
NPR - President Trump has signed dozens of executive orders in less than a month in office, and courts are now pushing back. One of the central roles of U.S. federal courts is to review the executive branch's implementation of federal law. Executive branch employees are expected to comply with court orders and existing legal roles — but that's mostly relying on good faith and tradition, according to UCLA law professor Blake Emerson. What happens if the president ignores these court orders? Several legal experts break it down:
⚖️ The U.S. Marshals Service — which is part of the Department of Justice — could enforce a judge's order, Gertner added. But the president could direct the Justice Department not to comply.
⚖️ Courts ultimately have few ways to punish a president for ignoring their rulings, but Congress still exists to intervene, according to Kristin Hickman, a professor of administrative law at the University of Minnesota. However, opposition is unlikely since Republicans control the House and Senate.
Surge in homelessness
CNN - City and state officials in parts of the US are uncertain how to respond to a surge in homelessness and encampments that have cropped up under bridges and in parks. Meanwhile, people who live in those encampments and advocacy groups say they are alarmed by efforts to criminalize the population rather than build shelters and affordable housing. This week, the city council in Fremont, California, voted to criminalize "aiding" and "abetting" homeless camps — an unusual move that advocates say could stifle help for people who need it. The new policy comes about seven months after the Supreme Court ruled that ticketing homeless people does not constitute "cruel and unusual punishment."
Trump strikes against media
NBC News - Blocking reporters from covering news events at the Oval Office. Ousting journalists from their working spaces in the Pentagon. Investigating public media companies that are often the targets of conservative attacks.
In the three weeks since he returned to the White House, President Donald Trump and his administration have moved beyond his usual anti-news media rhetoric to take a variety of actions that have limited some outlets’ access while hitting others with lawsuits and directives that critics say are naked attempts to bend news coverage to his will.
“I don’t know if Trump himself has a ‘game plan’ per se, but it is clear that the overall picture is of an Administration that disdains a free press,” Rebecca Hamilton, a law professor at American University, said in an email. “Their view — and this is evident from Trump’s rhetoric, his prior lawsuits, the Pentagon office space memo, and the FCC investigations — is that any media outlets that don’t align themselves with Trump’s agenda are the enemy. This reflects a fundamental disrespect for the principles underlying a democratic commitment to a free press.”
In what may be the most glaring example of that, Associated Press reporters were blocked from covering Trump at White House events for two days in a row after the AP continued to refer to the body of water just south of the United States as the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Gulf of America, the new name Trump gave it in one of many executive orders he has signed since he took office. The AP Stylebook, which many news outlets use, including NBC News, published an update two days after Trump renamed the gulf on Jan. 21 that said the AP will continue calling it the Gulf of Mexico “while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.”
Middle East update
NPR - The militant group Hamas said Thursday that it plans to release the next group of Israeli hostages this Saturday, as was scheduled in the ceasefire deal. In a statement, Hamas indicated that three Israeli hostages would be freed this weekend and thanked the efforts of the mediators, Qatar and Egypt. Israeli officials did not immediately comment on Hamas' announcement.An Egyptian official with knowledge of the talks, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak with the media, told NPR there has been an agreement, as did another official familiar with the details, who was also not authorized to speak publicly.
The Guardian - More than 350 rabbis, alongside additional signatories including Jewish creatives and activists, have signed an ad in the New York Times in which they condemn Donald Trump’s proposal for the effective ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.The ad, which was signed by rabbis including Sharon Brous, Roly Matalon and Alissa Wise, as well as Jewish creatives and activists including Tony Kushner, Ilana Glazer, Naomi Klein and Joaquin Phoenix, says: “Trump has called for the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza. Jewish people say no to ethnic cleansing!”
USAID update
The Guardian - International health organizations have warned that Donald Trump’s push to dismantle US foreign aid and orders barring diversity, equity and inclusion are destroying programs that once provided healthcare to millions of women and girls worldwide.Providers said a 90-day stop-work order imposed by the Department of State to “review” contracts for compliance with the new administration’s orders means many clinics, which operate on shoestring budgets, will never reopen – pausing services for everything from cervical cancer screenings to HIV treatment to the removal of intrauterine contraceptive devices.
Ukraine update
The Guardian - The US should not have made concessions to Russia in advance of peace negotiations by ruling out Nato membership for Ukraine and accepting the country would have to forfeit some of its territory, Germany’s defence minister has said.Boris Pistorius, arriving at a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels, echoed European frustrations in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s declaration on Wednesday that he was ready to negotiate with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
“In my view it would have been better to speak about a possible Nato membership for Ukraine or possible losses of territory at the negotiating table,” Pistorius said.
His comments were echoed by his French counterpart, SĂ©bastien Lecornu, who warned against “peace through weakness” as he arrived at Nato headquarters, rather than the “peace through strength” formulation nominally favoured by Trump.
February 12, 2025
Can Trump shoot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue with impunity?
The issue of whether President Trump can break some laws with immunity is not a new one. In 2019 Sean Illing addressed this matter in Vox , with comments by more than a dozen lawyers. This is a piece well worth reading as it points to some of the uncertainties in our laws and our constitution. What's interesting is that it is possible that a president could be arrested and charged for local or state crimes. This remains unclear.
Sean Illing, 2019 - President Trump’s lawyer argued in a federal court on Wednesday morning that he could not be prosecuted for a crime even if he shot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue. Attorneys for Trump made the argument during an appeals court case against Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, who is seeking Trump’s tax returns as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
The doctrine that a sitting president is immune from criminal indictment or prosecution is not new. The Department of Justice has a longstanding policy, outlined by the Office of Legal Counsel, that a sitting president cannot be charged with a federal crime.
Special counsel Robert Mueller famously invoked this policy (to be clear, it’s a policy, not law) when he summarized the results of his Russia investigation. “The special counsel’s office is part of the Department of Justice,” Mueller said, “and by regulation it was bound by that department policy. Charging the president with a crime was, therefore, not an option we could consider.”
American Bar Association takes on Trump
Huffington Post - The American Bar Association issued a blistering missive on the chaos President Donald Trump
has unleashed in the early days of his second administration, urging
the nation’s courts and attorneys to stand as a bulwark for the rule of
law.
“It has been three weeks since Inauguration Day. Most Americans recognize that newly elected leaders bring change. That is expected,” ABA President William R. Bay began the statement. “But most Americans also expect that changes will take place in accordance with the rule of law and in an orderly manner that respects the lives of affected individuals and the work they have been asked to perform.”...
He called on the administration to remember basic civics lessons about the three coequal branches of American government ...
The ABA, a nonpartisan legal accreditation group, has served to maintain academic and ethical standards for law schools and those in the legal profession since 1878.
Trump regime update
Washington Post - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday called Ukraine’s desire to recover all of the territory it has lost to Russia since 2014 an “unrealistic objective,” pledging that the Trump administration will pursue peace negotiations to end the two nations’ war while pointedly shaping them at the outset.
“Chasing
this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more pain and
suffering,” Hegseth said. Any peace deal, Hegseth added, must come with
“robust security guarantees,” international oversight of the boundary
between Russian and Ukrainian forces, and no NATO membership for Ukraine
— something that would require other countries to defend Ukrainian
territory in any future conflict.
The Guardian - Donald Trump’s executive order attacking transgender youth healthcare has unleashed chaos inside medical institutions across the country, with providers forced to cancel vital treatment and facing threats to their careers and clinics as they fight to serve their patients.The president’s 28 January policy declared federal funding should be revoked from centers that provide gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers, to youth under the age of 19. While the majority of trans healthcare providers have maintained services, institutions in New York, Colorado, Virginia, California and Washington DC announced immediate pauses on youth treatment. Q&A on this issue
NBC News - A federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration's bid to pause a lower court's order that temporarily halted a massive freeze in federal funding. A judge in Rhode Island on Monday blocked the funding freeze and ordered the administration to “immediately restore frozen funding.” An appeals court based in Boston denied the Justice Department's request to pause the judge's order while it challenges the order in court.
Huffington Post - Federal
courts and judges have repeatedly ordered that any evidence or exhibits
tied to Jan. 6 cases be placed in an online portal. But some of those
records have “disappeared” over the last week, according to a motion
filed Tuesday in federal court.
At its peak, the portal contained tens of thousands of records including videos, images, testimony, audio recordings, text messages and more.
The Press Coalition, a group of 14 media organizations, first sought to secure all Jan. 6 trial records in 2021, resulting in a standing order for the Justice Department to preserve video exhibits from the attack on the U.S. Capitol in a portal known as USAfx. Journalists and lawyers alike can access the portal once the government grants them authorization.
But this week, the Press Coalition said video exhibits entered for at least one Capitol riot defendant, Glen Mitchell Simon, are missing. When the group asked the Justice Department about it, the department “offered no explanation for why these judicial records are no longer publicly accessible or whether any other Capitol riot records that were previously available on USAfx have disappeared as well,” according to the lawsuit.
NBC News - The Senate confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as the director of national
intelligence, after the former Democratic congresswoman overcame
skepticism from some GOP senators. The vote fell largely along party lines, with Sen. Mitch McConnell as the lone Republican to oppose Gabbard.
Axios - The United States was perceived as the most corrupt it's been since 2012 in a watchdog group's annual index of nations around the globe. The U.S. received its lowest ever Corruption Perceptions Index score since Transparency International's current scale was established in 2012, according to the group's annual global ranking of public sector corruption across 180 countries released Tuesday.
- The U.S. was one of 47 countries that received its lowest score yet — effectively, its most corrupt point.
- The U.S. has not cracked the top 20 "cleanest" countries, based on corruption perception score, since 2017.
NPR - The General Services Administration, which manages federal real estate and contracts, plans to cut its budget in half. Staffers have been told to expect deep job cuts
and office closures, according to two GSA officials informed of the
plans by agency leadership. The remaining employees have been told
they'll be closely watched while they're on the clock.
NPR's Jenna McLaughlin compares the GSA to the federal government's circulatory system. "Without GSA, federal agencies would have a really hard time doing things like buying anything or accomplishing their missions," she says. McLaughlin adds that one of the most disturbing things sources were told was that employees would have keylogger software installed on their computers to track everything they type.
Washington Post - A judge ordered the CDC and FDA to restore websites that were removed. Several pages, on topics including HIV, were taken down to ensure they complied with Trump’s order on gender. Last night, staff were working to bring them back.
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Mail service set to deteriorate
Planetizen - At least half of all zip codes in America will receive slower and downgraded mail service under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s Delivering for America Plan, according to an analysis by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). “While agreeing with DeJoy that the Postal Service faces extreme challenges and that change is necessary, the PRC said that Delivering for America relies on defective modeling, overly optimistic cost-savings, and fails to fully consider the negative impact to rural communities,” writes RenĂ©e Jean for Cowboy State Daily, quoting the PRC’s statement that the Postal Service would be “irreversibly changing its network without laying a foundation for success.”
The PRC analysis showed that the plan would disproportionately impact rural communities across the country, which also rely more heavily on mail, resulting in delays of six days or more.
Ocean temperatures keep rising
Study Finds - The broken records in the ocean have become a broken record,” says lead author Lijing Cheng with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in a statement. Ocean temperatures surged to unprecedented levels last year, breaking away from previous records set in 2023, according to the research published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. The analysis, conducted by 54 scientists from seven countries, paints a sobering picture of accelerating ocean warming that outpaces previous projections... Most concerning to researchers was the observation that warming rates have increased two to threefold since the late 1980s.
Stupid Trump stuff
Irish Star - Trump has had several wild interview moments over the past 48 hours, most recently giving his VP JD Vance a "vote of no confidence", as some online have viewed it. In that same interview, Trump made a bold claim about his popularity during his first term as US President. He said that unnamed experts told him that even a ticket consisting of Washington and Lincoln combined could not have beaten him. He said: "The day before I heard the word 'covid' or 'pandemic,' I had a meeting with political people and pollsters and they said, 'Sir, if George Washington and Abraham Lincoln got together and ran as president and VP, they couldn't beat you.'"
Mike Johnson supports ignoring Constitution
Mike Johnson knows full well that impounding funds appropriated by Congress violates Article I of the Constitution and the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. The court orders are narrowly tailored to restrain the illegitimate exercise of power by Trump. But Johnson’s comment was meant to signal that House Republicans would not object to their neutering by Trump. Indeed, the fact that Johnson used “we” (“What we’re doing”) shows that House Republicans are co-conspirators in the coup.
Pentagon bans trangender troops
Shortlysts - The U.S. Department of Defense has announced a big policy shift regarding transgender individuals in the military. The Pentagon revealed that they will now implement a ban on new enlistments and pause gender transition procedures for active members.
The policy change comes amidst shifting public attitudes on the topic. A recent Gallup poll found that 58% of Americans now support allowing transgender individuals to serve openly in the military. That’s a notable decline from 71% in 2019...
The decrease in public support may have influenced the administration’s decision to reinstate restrictions, aligning with conservative efforts to roll back policies on gender identity in government institutions.
Civil rights groups and LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations have responded militantly, swiftly filing legal challenges against the new directive. Lawyers representing transgender service members are seeking an immediate injunction. They argue the policy violates equal protection under the law and disrupts the lives of transgender individuals committed to military service.