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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.
Discussion:
Axios, New York Times, Scripps News, The Hill, NBC News, Wall Street Journal, CBS News, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, Bloomberg, The Information, The Daily Caller, The Post Millennial, Washington Examiner, NewsNation, Townhall, UPI, Mediaite, Forbes, New York Post, Twitchy, Business Insider and The Daily Wire
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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.”

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


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 …
Discussion:
Washington Post, UPI, Reuters, Euromaidan Press, Twitchy, Raw Story, The Independent, Daily Mail, Digby's Hullabaloo, The Gateway Pundit, Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Financial Times, New York Post, ABC News, Voice of America and Mediaite
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U.S. Pressing Tough Demands in Revised Deal for Ukraine's Minerals — The Trump administration appears to be insisting that Ukraine relinquish half of its revenues from natural resource extraction, with no security guarantee in exchange. — Ukraine on Saturday was seriously considering …
Discussion:
The Kyiv Independent, The New European, New York Post and Euromaidan Press


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 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 Republic and New York Times
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DOGE shared its receipts — and some of them don't match — “Everyone is very well-aware they're repeating the wrong numbers,” said one manager at a company on DOGE's list of cuts. — Elon Musk promised to deliver a “maximally transparent” government efficiency program.
Discussion:
Raw Story, Mediaite and New Republic


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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February 21, 2025 — In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference …
Discussion:
Politico

Meloni, Privately Startled by Trump, Avoids Criticism of US
Discussion:
Reuters


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, CBS News, New York Post 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


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, CBS News, The Indian Express and KGW-TV


Kennedy Center reeling from ‘stunning’ ticket sales collapse after Trump takeover: report — A decision by Donald Trump to fire everyone and wrest control of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on the banks of the Potomac has led to an alarming downward spiral in ticket sales …
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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 …
Discussion:
The Hotshot Wake Up


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 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 …


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


Pope Francis is in critical condition after long respiratory crisis, requiring oxygen at high flow — Pope Francis was in critical condition Saturday after he suffered a long asthmatic respiratory crisis that required high flows of oxygen, the Vatican said.
Discussion:
BBC, WHDH-TV, UPI, New York Times, Fortune, Townhall, San Diego Union-Tribune, Fox News, Al Jazeera, Crux Now, The Indian Express, Irish Examiner, America Magazine, RTÉ, Forbes, Human Events and Metro.co.uk


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 …


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 …


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, America First Legal and Raw Story


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
Discussion:
JONATHAN TURLEY, Twitchy, NPR, RedState, The Post Millennial, Fox News, Breitbart and HotAir, more at Mediagazer »


Why Civ-Mil People Are Freaking Out? — Trump bravely waited until Friday night to purge the top level of the US military. Why are people freaking out? We knew this was going to happen. Trump promised this before the election, and the selection of Hegseth, a misogynist and racist …
Discussion:
Washington Post and The Mahablog


CT man accused of cannibalism and murder is granted conditional release — A man accused of cannibalism and murder has been granted conditional release, according to the Connecticut Psychiatric Security Review Board (PSRB). — The board granted Tyree Smith's release after a careful review of his clinical progress, officials said.
Discussion:
WHDH-TV, Hartford Courant, Twitchy, New York Post, The Post Millennial and The Gateway Pundit


Alarm as bird flu now ‘endemic in cows’ while Trump cuts staff and funding — Experts say current US outbreak is unlikely to end without intervention with further mutation of virus likely — A newer variant of H5N1 bird flu has spilled over into dairy cows separately in Nevada and Arizona …


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.
Discussion:
New York Magazine