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LawFare – Trump seeks to reduce the size of the federal workforce using a complicated and arcane process. “…In an executive order titled “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative,” Trump outlined two additional mechanisms by which he will seek to reduce federal employment. The order is sweeping, and its definition of …
Axios: “As Washington’s federal workforce is slashed by President Trump and DOGE, many in the DMV community are responding with another message: We stand with government employees. Why it matters: Some 373,000 federal workers live in the greater D.C. area, and many have been made to feel expendable at best (or worse, “smeared as leeches“). …
New York – The Intelligencer: “Federal employees and those who depend on the benefits and services they provide have been in shock from the moment the new Trump administration unleashed Elon Musk’s shadowy DOGE operatives to conduct guerrilla warfare on the “deep state.” Chaos and unpredictability have been the hallmarks of the DOGE reign of …
Fairness & Accurately in Reporting (FAIR): Brendan Carr, newly appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission, is waging a war on the news media, perhaps the most dangerous front in de jure President Donald Trump and de facto President Elon Musk’s quest to destroy freedom of the press and the First Amendment. Trump’s FCC has …
Jeremy Herzog rebuilt FEMA’s Future Risk Index after it was taken down last week.
“The New York Times [no paywall] identified 45 people within the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a group formed by Elon Musk that in a short few weeks has radically upended federal agencies. Few members have formal Washington experience. Many are software engineers. All seem to have a clear mandate: Shrink and disrupt the federal …
Joan Westenberg – Here’s What I’m Using [this is a long comprehensive read, and very useful especially for researchers, librarians, government, academics, journalists]: “…Apple, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and other tech companies operating on American soil can talk a big game about their sovereignty, independence, and encryption. But talk may be all it is; there can …
The Atlantic [no paywall]: “…Without the ability to issue research grants, the NIH effectively had its gas line cut. The agency employs thousands of in-house scientists, but a good 80 to 85 percent of its $47 billion budget funds outside research. Each year, researchers across the country submit grant proposals that panels of experts scrutinize …
Thaddeus Johnson, a former police officer, is a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice and teaches criminology at Georgia State University. Natasha Johnson is a faculty member at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State. No Paywall: “Imagine strolling down a crowded sidewalk when police officers stop a man. In …
FedScoop: “Federal agencies are directed to submit reductions in force and reorganization plans by March 13, setting the stage for more workforce terminations. A memo from the Office of Personnel Management sent Wednesday [February 25, 2025] tells agency heads that their plans to reduce the workforce and reorganize departments are required to comply with the …
American Prospect: “On February 3, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund (SWF), saying the United States will have one of the largest funds in the world. That requires raising trillions of dollars very quickly. For context, Norway’s fund is currently worth $1.8 trillion U.S. dollars. Sovereign wealth …
Military.com: “While controversy swirls around last week’s mass firing of 1,000 Department of Veterans Affairs’ employees, a far greater threat to veterans’ health care is going completely unnoticed. Powerful leaders in Congress have quietly unveiled their plan to gut VA-delivered care, wrapped in the misleadingly titled “Veterans’ ACCESS Act.” If veterans don’t act fast, they …
