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Musk says all federal employees need to explain their work immediately — or be let go — Federal employees received an email Saturday afternoon, and gave them a deadline of Monday night. — All federal government employees will have to share what they've been working on in the last week or face dismissal, Elon Musk said Saturday.
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New York Times, Washington Examiner, Axios, NPR, Scripps News, CBS News, Must Read Alaska, NBC News, The Hill, The Gateway Pundit, The Information, Wall Street Journal, The Daily Caller, Townhall, UPI, Forbes, New York Post, Fox News, Twitchy, Mediaite, NewsNation, The Daily Wire and The Post Millennial
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Feds must answer email on what they did last week — or lose jobs, Musk says — Emails began going out to the 2.3-million federal employees Saturday asking for five bullet points of their accomplishments. — Federal workers began receiving emails Saturday asking them to describe what they did last week …


Federal employees told to justify jobs in email or Musk says they face dismissal — Federal workers began receiving emails Saturday asking them to explain what work they did last week, as Elon Musk announced that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”


What Just Happened: Musk-OPM Send Email to Federal Employees Asking for Five Accomplishments
Discussion:
ABC News, Talking Points Memo, Reuters, Washington Times, Business Insider, The Hotshot Wake Up and The Bulwark

The DOGE Project Will Backfire
Discussion:
Can We Still Govern?, The Independent and Federal News Network


CPAC 2025: Conservative Elites Celebrate Trump as America Self-Immolates — The annual MAGA gathering felt like watching the most comfortable, frantically aggrieved parts of Trump's base yell at the TV — NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — As the Beatles' lyric goes: “Everybody had a hard year.
Discussion:
The Hill, New York Times and New York Post
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Meloni, Privately Startled by Trump, Avoids Criticism of US
Discussion:
Reuters


Musk's DOGE says it has saved $55 billion. Not so fast. — A Washington Post analysis found that hundreds of the canceled contracts DOGE listed represent savings of $0 each. — Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service claimed this week to have saved an estimated $55 billion through a combination of layoffs …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, PolitiFact, New York Times and New Republic
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DOGE shared its receipts — and some of them don't match
Discussion:
Mediaite, Raw Story and New Republic


As sales drop, artists weigh canceling Kennedy Center shows in protest — Ticket sales dropped roughly 50 percent week-over-week after Trump announced his takeover, sources said. Meanwhile, performers are mulling their options. — W. Kamau Bell was scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center …
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US threatens to shut off Starlink if Ukraine won't sign minerals deal, sources tell Reuters — Editor's Note: This story has been updated with Elon Musk's denial of the Reuters report. — The United States has threatened to cut off Ukraine's access to Starlink satellite internet terminals …
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U.S. Pressing Tough Demands in Revised Deal for Ukraine's Minerals
Discussion:
The Kyiv Independent, Kevin Drum, New York Post, Euromaidan Press and The New European


FBI Director Kash Patel to be named ATF chief — Patel is set to lead an agency that's been a frequent target of Republicans, including an effort to abolish it altogether. — President Donald Trump's newly-confirmed FBI director, Kash Patel, is expected to take on another top law enforcement role …
Discussion:
ABC News, New York Post, CBS News, RedState, WFAA-TV, The Indian Express and KGW-TV


In Pursuit of a ‘Warrior Ethos,’ Hegseth Targets Military's Top Lawyers — The defense secretary has repeatedly derided the military lawyers for war crime prosecutions and battlefield rules of engagement. — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's decision to fire the top lawyers for the Army …
Discussion:
OutsideTheBeltway
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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.
Discussion:
Raw Story, Digby's Hullabaloo and Political Wire
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Anxiety Mounts Among Social Security Recipients as DOGE Troops Settle In
Discussion:
HuffPost and The Independent


Musk's cost-cutting team is laying off workers at the auto safety agency overseeing his car company — Elon Musk's cost-cutting team is eliminating jobs at the vehicle safety agency that oversees Tesla and has launched investigations into deadly crashes involving his company's cars.
Discussion:
New York Times and UPI


Measles Outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico Sicken Nearly 100 People — Texas reported 90 cases this week, while New Mexico reported nine. A majority of the cases have been in a Texas county where vaccination rates have lagged behind the rest of the state. — Outbreaks of measles in parts …
Discussion:
NBC News, The Indian Express, New York Post, CBS News and Forbes
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Texas measles outbreak grows to 90 cases, worst level in 30 years
Discussion:
lonestarlive.com, Ars Technica, Associated Press and WFAA-TV


Trump's Firing of Gen. Charles Q. Brown May Have Roots in George Floyd Protests — A four-minute video appears to have been a turning point for the president and Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the ousted Joint Chiefs chairman. — For the second time, the killing of George Floyd by a police officer …
Discussion:
The Hill, Civil Discourse …, Washington Post, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, Breitbart, NPR, CBS News, DefenseScoop, Task & Purpose, Instapundit, Daily Kos and Chicago Sun Times


U.S.A.I.D. Appointees Fire Hundreds Working on Urgent Humanitarian Aid — The firings added to doubts about whether Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the agency's acting head, supports lifesaving humanitarian assistance, as he has said he does. — Trump administration appointees running …
Discussion:
Axios and Business Insider


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 …


CDC Shutters PRAMS Program on Maternal and Infant Health — The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) is a federal data collection system, run out of CDC, “designed to identify groups of women and infants at high risk for health problems, to monitor changes in health status …


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 …
Discussion:
Digby's Hullabaloo


Federal Judge to Trump: No, You Can't Ban DEI — For now, the administration can't “impede, block, cancel, or terminate” diversity and inclusion funds and obligations. — On Friday, a federal judge partly blocked President Donald Trump's attempt to root out programs related to diversity …
Discussion:
One America News Network, The Guardian, Reuters, Washington Post, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Quartz and America First Legal


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 …
Discussion:
Politico
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