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8:20 AM ET, February 1, 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.
Discussion: Transman Badass and New Republic
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.
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 …
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Who Can Stop Elon's ‘Team’ Wilding Its Way Through the Federal Government?
Discussion: Raw Story
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 …
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 …
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.
RELATED:
CNN:
FBI agents who worked on January 6 and Trump investigations are expected to be fired Friday
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:
NBC10 Philadelphia:
Live Updates: Medical jet carrying 6, including girl, crashes in Northeast Philly
Associated Press:
A medical plane carrying a child patient and 5 others crashes in Philadelphia, setting homes ablaze
Dennis Romero / NBC News:
Air ambulance carrying 6 crashes near mall in Philadelphia
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:
Sophie Gardner / Politico:
Public health information pulled offline in response to Trump orders
Discussion: CNN, DNyuz and Advocate
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:
Trump's fierce attacks on DEI reflect a longtime GOP focus
Washington Post:
House GOP nears plan for Trump's agenda — but may not have the votes
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
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.
Mattathias Schwartz / New York Times:
Federal Judge Orders White House to Keep Money Flowing to 22 States  —  A court in Rhode Island issued a temporary restraining order to block Trump's directive to defund programs he considers to be “woke.”  —  A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to keep taxpayer dollars flowing …
RELATED:
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:
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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 and The Hill
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: CNN, CNBC and Raw Story
Wall Street Journal:
Vaccine Information, Transgender References Disappear From Federal Websites  —  Officials remove pages containing references to gender identity and diversity  —  References to gender identity and information on some vaccines disappeared from federal websites as officials acted …
Discussion: Axios
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
Reuters:
Three hostages released from Gaza captivity, Rafah Crossing opens  —  Yarden Bibas, Ofer Kalderon, and Keith Siegel return home after 484 days in Hamas captivity  • IDF opens fire on armed group in Syrian Golan  —  Israeli Prison Service concludes fourth wave of releasing terrorists as part of hostage deal
 
 
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 More Items: 
Ed Kilgore / New York Magazine:
Trump Approval Rating Looks Fragile at Start of Second Term
Discussion: RedState and DNyuz
Elaine Godfrey / The Atlantic:
Democrats Wonder Where Their Leaders Are
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
Discussion: Raw Story
Paul McLeary / Politico:
Pentagon plans to start migrant flights to Guantanamo this weekend
Discussion: New York Post and Grabien
 Earlier Items: 
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
David Bauder / Associated Press:
Former ‘Meet the Press’ moderator Chuck Todd exits NBC News after nearly two decades
Washington Post:
Trump administration seeking access to database of immigrant minors
ABC News:
Federal employees told to remove pronouns from email signatures by end of day
 

 
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

Hayden Field / CNBC:
A US judge denies Musk's effort to halt OpenAI's for-profit shift, saying he failed to meet the burden of proof, but allows other aspects of the suit to proceed

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Google unveils AI-based Scam Detection in Google Messages in English, Android features like live location sharing in the Find My app, and new Pixel features
 
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