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9:25 PM ET, January 31, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Tim Reid / Reuters:
Exclusive: Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency, sources say  —  Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees …
RELATED:
Drew Friedman / Federal News Network:
Trump administration directs 70% cut to internal OPM staffing, programs  —  Trump administration officials are taking major steps to cut down the size of the workforce and federal programs at the Office of Personnel Management.  —  During an internal meeting Friday morning …
Discussion: Talking Points Memo
Washington Post:
Senior U.S. official to exit after rift with Musk allies over payment system  —  A top Treasury career staffer is expected to depart.  Surrogates of Musk's DOGE effort had sought access to sensitive payment systems.  —  The highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department …
RELATED:
Greg Sargent / New Republic:
Trump and Elon Musk Just Pulled Off Another Purge—and It's a Scary One  —  President Donald Trump has granted Elon Musk unprecedented power to carry out his war on the “deep state.”  The justification for this is supposed to be that the government is corrupted to its core precisely …
Discussion: CNN
Wired:
Elon Musk's Friends Have Infiltrated Another Government Agency  —  Elon Musk's former employees are trying to use White House credentials to access General Services Administration tech, giving them the potential to remote into laptops, read emails, and more, sources say.
Discussion: New Republic and New York Times
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Elon's Twitter Destruction Playbook Hits The US Government, And It's Even More Dangerous  —  from the twisting-the-chaos-knob-on-the-levers- of-power dept  —  Remember how Elon Musk destroyed Twitter by ripping apart its infrastructure without understanding it?  Now imagine that same playbook applied to the federal government.
Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch:   Elon Musk is reportedly taking control of the inner workings of US government agencies
CNN:
FBI agents who worked on January 6 and Trump investigations are expected to be fired Friday  —  The Trump administration is set to expand a purge of career law enforcement officials, with dozens of FBI agents who worked on January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack and Trump-related investigations …
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Interim U.S. attorney fires more than two dozen Jan. 6 prosecutors in D.C.  —  The lawyer and pro-Trump podcaster has fired Jan. 6 prosecutors, launched investigations of the Capitol riot investigation and threatened a Democrat with an inquiry.
Politico:
Trump says he opened California's water.  Local officials say he nearly flooded them.  —  The Army Corps of Engineers moved to release massive quantities of water in Central California, panicking local officials.  —  SACRAMENTO, California — President Donald Trump declared victory on Friday …
Discussion: SJV Water and Mercury News
RELATED:
Lois Henry / SJV Water:
Decision to dump water from Tulare County lakes altered after sending locals into a mad scramble  —  Water managers were relieved Thursday evening after the Army Corps of Engineers agreed to back off of a sudden decision earlier in the day to dump massive amounts of water from Kaweah and Success lakes.
Discussion: Just some stuff
Los Angeles Times:
Acting on Trump's order, federal officials opened up two California dams  — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers abruptly increased the amount of water flowing from two California dams.  — The federal agency made the decision after President Trump signed an order calling for increased water deliveries.
Associated Press:
White House says Trump tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China will come Saturday.  No word on exemptions  —  President Donald Trump will put in place 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico and 10% tariffs on goods from China effective on Saturday, the White House said …
RELATED:
Joan Westenberg / The Index:   These Clowns are Economic Illiterates
Jeff Cox / CNBC:
Trump tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China begin Saturday, White House says
New York Times:
The Treasury official who oversees payments resigns suddenly.
Ian Millhiser / Vox:
Brett Kavanaugh has very bad news for Donald Trump  —  Fearless journalism needs your support now more than ever.  Become a Vox Member today.  —  On Friday afternoon, a federal judge in Rhode Island temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's attempt to halt a simply enormous amount of domestic federal spending.
RELATED:
Washington Post:   House GOP nears plan for Trump's agenda — but may not have the votes
Politico:   Second judge to block Trump's spending freeze says the policy is likely unconstitutional
NPR:
Trump administration purges websites across federal health agencies  —  At the direction of the Trump administration, the federal Department of Health and Human Services and its agencies are purging its websites of information and data on a broad array of topics — from adolescent health to LGBTQ+ rights to HIV.
RELATED:
Nandika Chatterjee / The Daily Beast:
Trump Admin Emails Air Traffic Controllers: Quit Your Jobs  —  REALLY?!  —  Federal employees were told they could use their paid time off to explore “dream destinations” before quitting.
Associated Press:
New York doctor indicted for prescribing abortion pill in Louisiana  —  A New York doctor was indicted by a Louisiana grand jury on Friday for allegedly prescribing an abortion pill online in the Deep South state, which has one of the strictest near-total abortion bans in the country.
CBS News:
Watch live coverage: Plane crash in Philadelphia leaves multiple houses on fire, causes explosion  —  Emergency crews are responding to an explosion in Northeast Philadelphia after a small medical jet crashed in the area of Roosevelt Boulevard and Cottman Avenue, Philadephia police confirmed to CBS News Philadelphia.
ABC News:
Federal employees told to remove pronouns from email signatures by end of day  —  The mandate is the latest effort in the Trump administration's push to end DEI.  —  President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Jan. 30, 2025.
Thomas Novelly / Military.com:
Governors Identify 2 Soldiers Killed in Black Hawk Collision While Third Name Withheld by Service  —  Two of the three soldiers who were killed Wednesday when their Black Hawk helicopter collided with a passenger airline have been identified by service and public officials …
RELATED:
NPR:
Army withholds name of Black Hawk helicopter crew in D.C. crash, 2 others identified
Washington Post:
Trump administration seeking access to database of immigrant minors  —  The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for caring for unaccompanied minors, has long operated independently of ICE.  —  The Trump administration is seeking to grant U.S. immigration officers access …
Benjamin Wittes / Default:
The Situation: Kash Patel's “Odor of Mendacity”  —  Any FBI agent who testified as the FBI Director nominee did would lose his job.  —  Meet The Authors … The Situation on Wednesday focused on the unique danger of Kash Patel among Donald Trump's nominees, in the context of the purge …
Discussion: Wired, New York Times and Mother Jones
Melissa Brown / The Tennessean:
Tennessee GOP passes immigration law to criminalize elected officials' votes  —  Tennessee Republicans finalized an immigration bill Thursday establishing a new enforcement office exempt from public records law and criminalizing local officials who support sanctuary policies for immigrants.
Axios:
Scoop: New White House video has “Angel Moms” blasting Selena Gomez on immigration … - “You don't know who you're crying for,” Tammy Nobles, an “Angel Mom” whose daughter, Kayla Hamilton, was killed in July 2022 by a gang member, says in the video, addressing Gomez.
David Bauder / Associated Press:
Former ‘Meet the Press’ moderator Chuck Todd exits NBC News after nearly two decades  —  Former “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd is leaving NBC News after nearly 18 years at the network.  —  Todd said in a memo to NBC News colleagues that Friday was his last day.
Politico:
USDA ordered to scrub climate change from websites  —  The directive could affect information across dozens of programs including climate-smart agriculture initiatives.  —  Agriculture Department employees have been ordered to delete landing pages discussing climate change across agency websites …
Phil Williams / WTVF-TV:
Career prosecutors withdraw from federal criminal investigation of GOP Congressman Andy Ogles  —  Local prosecutors are not commenting, but move may signal plans to drop investigation of one of President Trump's Republican allies  —  NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Federal prosecutors based …
Discussion: Raw Story
ProPublica:
“People Will Die”: The Trump Administration Said It Lifted Its Ban on Lifesaving Humanitarian Aid.  That's Not True.  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.
 
 
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 More Items: 
Declan Harty / Politico:
Trump Media gifts Patel, McMahon thousands of shares
Discussion: CNBC and Raw Story
Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
CBS News Set to Hand Over Transcript of ‘60 Minutes’ Interview to F.C.C.
Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark:
Please Don't Resign  —  How to stop Elon Musk.  (And Trump.)  —  ∙ Paid
Michael Levenson / New York Times:
Woman Pardoned in Jan. 6 Case Gets 10-Year Sentence in Drunken-Driving Death
Lee Soo-Jung / Korea Joongang Daily:
150,000 Koreans in U.S. subject to Trump's deportation order: Report
Discussion: Raw Story
Chris Marquette / Politico:
DEI not to blame in crash, says top Republican overseeing FAA
Discussion: The Atlantic and DNyuz
 Earlier Items: 
Michael Tomasky / New Republic:
We've Now Learned the Three Principles of Trumpism, and They're Ugly
Slate:
The D.C. Air Disaster Is a Flashing Warning Sign About DOGE
John Ganz / Unpopular Front:
Groyperfication  —  I'm working on something long-ish on the “vibe shift” discourse …
New York Times:
Clues From D.C. Plane Crash Suggest Multiple Failures in Aviation Safety
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:
Memo: WSJ Editor Emma Tucker announces the layoffs of some reporters and editors, and the creation of new jobs, amid a consolidation of tech and media coverage

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A US district court judge stops discovery requests against the NYT in Justin Baldoni's defamation lawsuit and signals the NYT might get dismissed from the case

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Memo: Kari Lake, special adviser to the US Agency for Global Media, says Victor Morales, who started working at USAGM in 2016, has been named acting USAGM CEO
 
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