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11:05 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:
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.
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 …
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
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:   Elon's Twitter Destruction Playbook Hits The US Government, And It's Even More Dangerous
Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch:   Elon Musk is reportedly taking control of the inner workings of US government agencies
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.
RELATED:
Lois Henry / SJV Water:
Trump's emergency water order responsible for water dump from Tulare County lakes  —  The sudden announcement Thursday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that Kaweah and Success lakes would immediately begin dumping water was in response to President Trump's Jan. 24 executive order mandating …
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.
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: Raw Story and Mercury News
Washington Post:
D.C. U.S. attorney fires Jan. 6 prosecutors, launches new probes  —  Ed Martin has fired Jan. 6 prosecutors, launched investigations of Capitol riot prosecutions and threatened the nation's top elected Democrat with an inquiry.  —  Interim D.C. U.S. attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr. …
RELATED:
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 …
Joan Westenberg / The Index:
These Clowns are Economic Illiterates  —  Trump treats tariffs like a toddler treats a new word, repeating it endlessly without grasping its meaning in his stained, clutching hands.  —  Donald Trump has discovered tariffs again, and God help us all.  The President and souvenir coin salesman announced …
RELATED:
Associated Press:
White House says Trump tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China will come Saturday. No word on exemptions
Jeff Cox / CNBC:
Trump tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China begin Saturday, White House says
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.
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.
RELATED:
Dennis Romero / NBC News:
Air ambulance carrying 6 crashes near mall in Philadelphia
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.
RELATED:
Chris Nakamoto / WAFB-TV:
La. grand jury indicts N.Y. doctor who prescribed abortion pill local teen took
Discussion: WRKF, Washington Examiner and The 19th
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
NPR:
Army withholds name of Black Hawk helicopter crew in D.C. crash, 2 others identified  —  The Army has identified two of the three soldiers killed in Wednesday's crash outside a busy Washington, D.C. airport.  The three-person crew was on board a Black Hawk helicopter that collided …
RELATED:
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.
Declan Harty / Politico:
Trump Media gifts Patel, McMahon thousands of shares  —  Trump Media called the gifts in the filings “consideration for services provided” in 2024.  —  President Donald Trump's social media startup gifted more than $800,000 worth of stock each to Kash Patel, his nominee to run the FBI …
Discussion: Raw Story
RELATED:
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:
Trump Media gifts DJT shares to FBI pick Kash Patel, Linda McMahon and president's son
Discussion: Bloomberg
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, Mother Jones and New York Times
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:
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 …
Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
CBS News Set to Hand Over Transcript of ‘60 Minutes’ Interview to F.C.C.  —  The broadcaster had declined previous requests by the Trump campaign to release the unedited transcript of an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris.  —  CBS News plans to comply with a request …
RELATED:
NBC News:
Second judge blocks Trump's federal aid funding freeze  —  The Justice Department argued that the lawsuit by 22 states was moot because the Trump administration recently rescinded its spending memo.  The judge disagreed.  —  A federal judge on Friday sided with a coalition of 22 states …
Discussion: Reuters, E&E News, CBS News and Scripps News
RELATED:
Politico:   Second judge to block Trump's spending freeze says the policy is likely unconstitutional
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.
 
 
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 More Items: 
U.S. Department of Defense:
Identity Months Dead at DoD
Discussion: Ken Klippenstein
Joey McFadden / The Daily Beast:
Trump Orders Schools to Ease Sexual Misconduct Rules
Paul McLeary / Politico:
Pentagon plans to start migrant flights to Guantanamo this weekend
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
 Earlier Items: 
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: DNyuz and The Atlantic
David Bauder / Associated Press:
Former ‘Meet the Press’ moderator Chuck Todd exits NBC News after nearly two decades
Slate:
The D.C. Air Disaster Is a Flashing Warning Sign About DOGE
Phil Williams / WTVF-TV:
Career prosecutors withdraw from federal criminal investigation of GOP Congressman Andy Ogles
Discussion: Raw Story
Kate Kelly / New York Times:
Official Email Urges Federal Workers to Find More Productive Jobs
 

 
From Techmeme:

David Pierce / The Verge:
Apple updates the $599+ 11-inch and $799+ 13-inch iPad Air with M3, in four colors, and debuts a $269+ Magic Keyboard with function keys and a larger trackpad

Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
Anthropic raised a $3.5B Series E led by Lightspeed at a $61.5B valuation; a source says its annual revenue run rate is up 30% in 2025, from ~$1B in late 2024

Axios:
At a press conference with Trump, TSMC CEO CC Wei says the company plans to invest $100B+ in US chips over four years, on top of its $65B commitment in Arizona
 
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