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Federal judge blocks Musk's DOGE from access to Treasury Department material — The judge also ordered Musk and his team to “immediately destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from Treasury Department's records and systems, if any.” — NEW YORK — A federal judge issued …
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Townhall
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Judge Halts Access to Treasury Payment Systems by Elon Musk's Team — The order came in response to a lawsuit filed by 19 attorneys general accusing the president of failing to faithfully execute the nation's laws when he let DOGE comb through federal computer systems.
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Reuters, Althouse, The Japan Times, Foreign Affairs, Mashable and Raw Story


Treasury was warned DOGE access to payments marked an ‘insider threat’ — The assessment, done by the contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, came before Treasury tapped an ally of Elon Musk to oversee the sensitive payment system. — The Treasury Department was warned in a confidential assessment …
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Washington Examiner, Fox News, Gothamist and ProPublica


Judge orders sweeping restriction on DOGE access to sensitive Treasury payment systems
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CNN, UPI and Business Insider

“The greatest threat we've ever faced”: US Treasury division classifies DOGE staff as extreme danger
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FedScoop

A US Treasury Threat Intelligence Analysis Designates DOGE Staff as ‘Insider Threat’
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Politico, Bloomberg, Raw Story, Rolling Stone and Mediaite

Attorney General Bonta Sues Trump Administration Over DOGE's Unlawful Access to Americans' Personal Information
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Bloomberg and New Jersey Office …

Treasury elevates Musk ally to lead government payment system
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Default, Forbes, Tampa Free Press, Vox, NPR, Associated Press, New York Times, Bloomberg, RedState, Deep Left Field, Raw Story, New Republic, Washington Post and HuffPost

Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates — Related Announcements — Issued by — Office of The Director, National Institutes of Health (OD) — Purpose — The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awards a large number of grants providing …
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Ars Technica, STAT, Inside Medicine and Raw Story
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Deep Cuts to Medical Research Funds Could Hobble University Budgets — Grants from the National Institutes of Health come with additional money for overhead. Proposed funding cuts would leave colleges with large budget gaps. — The National Institutes of Health announced a new policy Friday …
Discussion:
STAT


How spending $153M to pay its bills put USAID in DOGE's crosshairs — Aides to the president and Elon Musk suspected USAID officials were trying to go around a funding freeze. — Pete Marocco was furious. — It was Thursday, Jan. 23, and the Trump administration official had discovered …
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New Administration Highlights: Trump Revokes Biden's Security Clearance

Judge blocks Trump administration from putting 2,200 USAID workers on leave
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Washington Post, Fox News, New York Times, Tennessee Star, UPI, CNBC, Axios, The Guardian, Washington Examiner, KFMB, CBS News, The Independent, New York Post, WUSA, Reuters, Federal News Network, Forbes and The Gateway Pundit


Advocate of Jan. 6 Rioters Now Runs Office That Investigated Them — Ed Martin, a loyal Trump soldier, oversees the U.S. attorney's office, which is likely to help turn the investigative powers of the government on several of the president's perceived enemies.


Trump Says He Will Dismiss Kennedy Center Board Members and Install Himself as Chair — The move by the president, whose authority to make the changes was not clear, is the latest attempt to bring a Washington institution under his control. — President Trump announced his intention …
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Trump fires archivist of the United States, official who oversees government records — President Trump has fired Archivist of the United States Colleen J. Shogan, the government official responsible for preserving and providing access to government records.
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Trump Fires National Archives Director Colleen Shogan
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Politico, New York Times, NBC News and Bloomberg


Measles outbreak expands in West Texas around county with low vaccination rate — A measles outbreak is growing in a rural area of West Texas where vaccination rates are well below the recommended level. — In late January, two children in Gaines County were hospitalized for measles.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, WAGA-TV, WXIA-TV and KFF Health News


Did Trump Quietly Kill a Sensitive Pentagon Probe into Elon Musk? — In December, more than a month before Donald Trump took the presidential oath of office, The New York Times reported a blockbuster scoop: Elon Musk and his SpaceX company had repeatedly failed to meet federal reporting requirements designed …


Teen on Musk's DOGE Team Graduated from ‘The Com’ — Wired reported this week that a 19-year-old working for Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was given access to sensitive US government systems even though his past association with cybercrime communities …
Discussion:
magpie's nest, more at Techmeme »


Musk's DOGE Teen Was Fired By Cybersecurity Firm for Leaking Company Secrets — Edward Coristine posted online that he had retained access to the firm's servers. Now he has access to sensitive government information. — Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old member of Elon Musk's squad that's …
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New York Times, The Hill, Mediaite, New Republic, Raw Story, The Independent, Gizmodo and The Verge, more at Techmeme »


Trump halts aid to South Africa, claiming discrimination against Afrikaners — His executive order accuses South Africa's government of seizing property from White landowners and calls for their resettlement as “refugees” in the U.S. — President Donald Trump on Friday signed …
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New York Times, Associated Press, Bloomberg, WSVN-TV, The Independent, Washington Examiner, Al Jazeera and Raw Story
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Trump orders U.S. to prioritize refugee resettlement of South Africans of European descent
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Revolver News, The White House, Austin Kocher, Fox News, Mediaite, RedState, Chicago Sun Times and The National Pulse


The real lesson of the DOGE racist tweets scandal — On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that a staffer at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) resigned after the paper inquired about some racist social media posts from an account linked to him.
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Musk to rehire DOGE staffer with history of racist tweets
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The Guardian, Forbes, Raw Story, Bloomberg, Politico, Business Insider, American Greatness, NBC News, The National Pulse, Mediaite, CNBC and OutsideTheBeltway, more at Techmeme »


30K tons of food ‘going to waste’ in Houston after Trump halted aid — About 30,000 tons of food is stuck at a port in Houston after Trump halted foreign aid for 90 days. The food, intended to feed people overseas, is stalled at a warehouse,the Houston Chronicle reported.

Kash Patel Took $25,000 From Russia-Linked Firm to Appear on an Anti-FBI TV Series — Last year, Kash Patel, the MAGA provocateur whom Donald Trump has nominated to head the FBI, received $25,000 from a Russia-linked production company to participate in a documentary in which he assailed the FBI and called for closing its headquarters.
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Washington Has Given Up the Fight Against Kleptocrats. Here's What Democracies Should Do — On Feb. 6, new U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a series of new directives from President Donald Trump's administration outlining her office's priorities. Taken together, they represent …


'It's a Circus': Trump Unleashes Chaos at Key US Science Agency — Muddled directives and early-morning emails at NOAA, one of the world's top weather and climate forecasters, have put the agency on edge. — The email arrived in US government workers' inboxes just after 1 a.m. East Coast time on Friday …
Discussion:
CBS News, New York Times and Heatmap News


Will a Time Magazine Cover Drive a Wedge Between Trump and Musk? — The cover of the venerable newsweekly, long an object of fixation for the president, put Elon Musk behind the Resolute Desk. — The president did not look amused. He was meeting the Japanese prime minister …
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PJ Media, Althouse, CNN, IJR, The Heartland Institute, Townhall, RedState, The Daily Wire, NBC News, Twitchy, Daily Mail, CBS News, Blaze Media, Fox Business, The Independent, New Republic, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story, The Poke, HuffPost, Fox News, Grabien, New York Magazine and ABC News


The Mood of the American Consumer is Souring — Tariff threats, market turbulence causing jitters early in Trump's second term — The Trump bump in consumer confidence is already over. — Tariff threats, stock market swings and rapidly reversing executive orders are causing Americans across …
Discussion:
The Independent and Raw Story


Federal workers who took Trump buyout feel fear, regret after judge's order — A judge in Massachusetts paused a Feb. 6 deadline to decide on whether to take the buyout, pending a Monday court hearing in a lawsuit seeking to nullify the Trump administration's deferred resignation program.
Discussion:
ZeroHedge News and NBC News


1. Trump's second term: Early ratings and expectations — Table of Contents Table of Contents — Americans are deeply divided over Donald Trump's plans and the way he is handling his job in the early weeks of his return to the presidency. — Overall, 47% of U.S. adults approve …


Trump officials exerting unprecedented control over CDC scientific journal — Trump administration political appointees have taken steps in recent weeks to exert unprecedented influence over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's flagship medical research publication …
Discussion:
Wired


‘Backsliding’: most countries to miss vital climate deadline as Cop30 nears — Developing countries urge biggest polluters to act as Trump's return to the White House heightens geopolitical turmoil — The vast majority of governments are likely to miss a looming deadline to file vital plans …


Trump says he's ending Biden's classified intelligence briefings in payback move — President Donald Trump said Friday that he's revoking former President Joe Biden's access to government secrets and ending the daily intelligence briefings he's receiving in payback for Biden doing the same to him in 2021.
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Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Townhall, Shore News Network, Fox News, The Daily Caller, Daily Caller News Foundation, American Greatness, Breitbart, Forbes, Raw Story, One America News Network, The Gateway Pundit, KRDO, NBC News, NPR, Washington Examiner, Mediaite, Al Jazeera, The Independent, New York Post, CBS News, The Post Millennial, Axios, Daily Mail, Blaze Media, USA Today, Scripps News, WGN-TV and WTOP News


Hegseth Uses His First Town Hall to Attack Diversity — The defense secretary, speaking to the Pentagon work force, defended his “unconventional approaches” to an audience that included women and people of color. — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave his first public address …


A sample of the government webpages Trump doesn't want you to see — When President Donald Trump took office, dozens of government webpages disappeared as part of his plan to reshape the U.S. government to his liking. Not even NASA was spared. — Catherine Rampell is a Post Opinions columnist …
Discussion:
Blaze Media and Truthout


Falsehoods Fuel the Right-Wing Crusade Against U.S.A.I.D. — As the Trump administration works to dismantle the aid agency, right-wing influencers have flooded the internet with falsehoods about its work. — The video falsely claiming that the United States Agency for International …
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MPR News and Forbes, more at Mediagazer »