Trump fires chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and two other military officers  —  President Donald Trump abruptly fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday, sidelining a history-making fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign led …

US threatens to shut off Starlink if Ukraine won't sign minerals deal, sources tell Reuters  —  The United States has threatened to cut off Ukraine's access to Starlink satellite internet terminals if Kyiv does not reach a deal with the U.S. regarding critical mineral resources …

DOGE's Only Public Ledger Is Riddled With Mistakes  —  The figures from Elon Musk's team of outsiders represent billions in government cuts.  They are also full of accounting errors, outdated data and other miscalculations.  —  Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency …

New Social Security chief was being investigated when Musk team tapped him  —  Leland Dudek, a data analyst working in a small anti-fraud office, was suspected of sharing unauthorized access to information with representatives of Musk's U.S. DOGE Service.  Now he's the acting Social Security commissioner.

Kristi Noem Says $200 Million DHS Ad Campaign Thanking Trump Was His Idea  —  Trump's Homeland Security Secretary said he instructed her to make ads that “thank me for closing the border”  —  NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — The Department of Homeland Security has budgeted up to $200 million …

How Federal Employees Are Fighting Back Against Elon Musk … Karen Ortiz, an administrative law judge at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said her ability to send emails was shut off after she sent an agencywide message calling on the commission's acting chair to resign.Taurat Hossain for The New York Times

The Great Resegregation  —  The nostalgia behind the slogan “Make America great again” has always provoked the obvious questions of just when America was great, and for whom.  Early in the second Trump administration, we are getting the answer.  —  In August, speaking with someone he believed …

Recording reveals new details on controversial DOGE employee  —  Less than three years before Elon Musk tapped him to take part in a sweeping overhaul of the US government, Edward Coristine, then 17, was the subject of a heated dispute between two executives at the Arizona-based cybersecurity firm where he was an intern.

The DOGE Project Will Backfire  —  Trump's war on public employees is bad for all of us.  —  President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk justify dismantling the civil service as cost cutting.  The federal government has “billions and billions of dollars in waste, fraud …

Global Right-Wing Leaders Revel in a Renewed Fight, Supercharged by Trump  —  Emissaries of far-right parties overseas, gathering this week at the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington, described a resurgence spanning continents, buoyed by the U.S. president.

They Worked to Prevent Death.  The Trump Administration Fired Them.  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.  —  Every day, they tackled complex issues with life-or-death stakes:

US Rep. Glenn Grothman faces hostile crowd at Oshkosh town hall meeting  —  Constituents ask congressman about Medicaid funding, power of Elon Musk  —  People booed and jeered at U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman as he walked into the Algoma Town Hall just outside Oshkosh Friday morning.

NBC Settles Defamation Lawsuit With Georgia Doctor Whom Rachel Maddow Dubbed the ‘Uterus Collector,’ Avoiding High Stakes Trial  —  NBC's top anchors made ‘verifiably false’ statements about a doctor they accused of performing ‘mass hysterectomies’ on female inmates at ICE facility, a federal judge ruled last year

Another Town Hall(s) Goes Off the Rails - Oregon 2nd District Edition  —  In Oregon's 2nd district, Rep. Cliff Bentz (R) got a rude awakening in four town halls he held in this past week.  At one point in his town hall in La Grande he chided the audience, saying a lot of representatives had refused to even hold town halls.

Trump's Own Pollster Just Hit Him with Very Bad News—and a Warning  —  As you watch President Donald Trump and Elon Musk recklessly attempt to destroy the federal government like a pair of toddlers picking legs off a spider, it seems as if Republicans have decided public opinion no longer constrains them in the least.

Prominent DOGE Staffer Is Grandson Of Turncoat KGB Spy  —  [A brief editorial note: About 10 years ago, I began researching the Year of the Spy and some famous Reagan-era espionage cases.  This post draws from that research.  See also my previously published article about the NSA traitor Ronald Pelton.]

Frustrated Democrats Urge Leaders to Show More Fight Against Trump  —  Voters, activists and even some governors, like Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, are growing exasperated with congressional Democrats' restrained approach.  —  One month after President Trump was sworn in for a second term …

IRS blocks Musk aide from accessing taxpayer data  —  The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has blocked a key aide to tech billionaire Elon Musk from accessing individual taxpayer returns or other personal information as part of a deal signed between the tax-collecting agency and the Trump administration.

Oversight Democrats warn Trump on plans to ‘dismantle’ Postal Service  —  Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee on Saturday urged President Trump to abandon plans to reform the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) after he said he was considering a “merger” for the mail service.

Governor Mills' Statement on Notice of Investigation From U.S. Department of Education  —  Washington, D.C. - Governor Janet Mills released the following statement today in response to the U.S. Department of Education notifying the Maine Department of Education that it has been directed …

Preparations under way for meeting between Trump and Putin, Russia says  —  Russian and US leaders will meet face to face in move towards normalising relations, deputy foreign minister says  —  Preparations for a face-to-face meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are under way, Russia's deputy foreign minister has said.

Missouri lawmaker proposes registry of pregnant women ‘at risk’ for abortions  —  Dubbed ‘eHarmony for babies’, bill would create connected databases for pregnant women and those looking to adopt  —  A Republican lawmaker in Missouri has introduced legislation to create a registry of pregnant women who are …

Craving more energy, Maryland looks to nuclear power  —  Lawmakers are considering measures this legislative session that could encourage more nuclear energy in the state.  (Angelique Gingras/Capital News Service)  —  ANNAPOLIS - In a legislative session dominated by energy issues …

February 21, 2025  —  In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) yesterday, billionaire Elon Musk seemed to be having difficulty speaking.  Musk brandished a chainsaw like that Argentina's president Javier Milei used to symbolize the drastic cuts he intended …

Federal prisons prep to move trans inmates as early as next week  —  The Bureau of Prisons is pushing ahead with plans to move transgender inmates out of prisons that align with their gender identity and into facilities corresponding to their sex at birth.  The moves could happen as early as next week …

Trump, After G.O.P. Criticism, Reverses Cuts to 9/11 Survivors' Program  —  About 20 percent of the World Trade Central Health Program's staff had been terminated amid President Trump's slashing of the federal work force.  —  The Trump administration has reversed itself on making funding …

Trump wants America to shine on AI.  DOGE is blundering it.  —  One of the big challenges of reporting on the new administration is that it's hard to figure out who's really calling the shots.  Take AI.  In his comments to world leaders at the AI Action Summit in Paris last week …