New Secret Service protective detail agents are about to get a wardrobe upgrade, courtesy of taxpayers. @cnn.com www.cnn.com/2026/02/20/p...

The National PTA is ending its relationship with Meta. PTA will not "pursue renewal funding" from the company to pay for digital safety trainings. Meta is facing a series of landmark lawsuits accusing the company of designing products that endanger kids' mental health. www.cnbc.com/2026/02/20/n...

Doctors bear the burden as ‘medical freedom’ fuels worst US measles outbreak in 30 years www.reuters.com/business/hea...

🔊 A visibly shaken Andrew Mountbatten‑Windsor is photographed slumped in the back of his Range Rover after being released from police custody. Hear the latest on the widening royal scandal on the Reuters World News podcast reut.rs/4qN5kpU

Do you ever have a problem singling one OMG section of a news story because the story has so many of them, one after another? This deeply reporterd @benjaminpenn.bsky.social piece, about a rogue DOJ honcho, is one of those. Below, just one example. news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Bill Gates withdrew from an international gathering on AI hours before he was scheduled to speak on Thursday. www.reuters.com/world/india/...

Exclusive: The US State Department is developing an online portal to enable people in Europe and elsewhere to see content banned by their governments including alleged hate speech and terrorist propaganda, sources told Reuters reut.rs/4cySsA6

Exclusive: US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere www.reuters.com/world/us-pla...

Reuters video of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg walking into court this morning in LA to testify in a case about social media addiction.

"Meta is preparing to spend $65 million this year to boost state politicians who are friendly to the artificial intelligence industry, beginning this week in Texas and Illinois, according to company representatives."

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg will answer questions in court today about Instagram’s effect on the mental health of young users. His testimony will be a key moment in a weeks-long trial over social media addiction. Jody Godoy will update this site after he testifies -> www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Florida’s AG is teaching at University of Florida’s law school — and his pay is “raising eyebrows” in the legal community, @miamiherald.com reports. www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...

JUST IN: Trump's Justice Department antitrust head Gail Slater stepping down reut.rs/4kxUS45

New: Anthropic will donate $20 million to a U.S. political group that supports AI regulation. The donation will help the company counter rival OpenAI's influence over U.S. politicians. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Instagram leader Adam Mosseri is set to face questions in court today about whether the app's design is fueling a youth mental health crisis. www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

President Donald Trump’s expansive efforts to use federal funding as a cudgel against political opponents and programs he considers “woke” remain mired in court more a year since his return to the White House.

Meta and YouTube deliberately designed products they knew would addict children, a lawyer for a woman suing the two companies told jurors in California on Monday. www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

Social media ban concept spreading around the world. This time in Germany. www.reuters.com/business/med...

The bipartisan bill would require social media platforms to take “reasonable steps” to combat fraudulent advertising or face legal action by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general. www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

U.S. President Donald Trump will have more power to hire and fire up to 50,000 career federal employees, under an overhaul of the government's civil service system announced by his administration on Thursday. www.reuters.com/world/trump-...

My story on Elon Musk cutting safeguards at xAI is on the front page of today's @washingtonpost.com. I’m also among 100’s of reporters laid off. I absolutely loved my job my brilliant coworkers & the thrill of reporting @ the center of forces upending the world: AI & Silicon Valley’s political power

Two more countries considering bans on social media for teens. ➡️Spain wants to prohibit social media for those aged under 16. ➡️Greece is close to announcing a similar ban for children under 15, a senior government source said. www.reuters.com/world/spain-...

A very rich and getting richer president, in a personal matter, suing a government he leads, as the suit will be defended by a DoJ he also aggressively controls.

Bomb cyclone?! 😬 From Wash Post:

"Indiana was very likely to face a battle in federal court over the legislation, if passed, after it caught the attention of litigators in the American Civil Liberties Union and industry lobbyist organization NetChoice." www.indystar.com/story/news/p...

BREAKING: The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady, citing still-elevated inflation alongside solid economic growth and giving little indication in its latest policy statement of when borrowing costs might fall again. Follow live updates: reut.rs/3Z5KS8g

"Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg approved allowing minors to access AI chatbot companions that safety staffers warned were capable of sexual interactions, according to internal Meta documents filed in a New Mexico state court case and made public Monday." www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

This trial was slated to be the first time TikTok had to defend itself in front of a jury over alleged harm caused by their products, the plaintiff's attorney Matthew Bergman told us earlier this month. www.reuters.com/world/tiktok...

"Republican Chris Madel made a stunning exit from the Minnesota governor’s race on Jan. 26, saying he cannot support the national GOP’s 'stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.'" www.startribune.com/chris-madel-...

The debate over kids and social media usage enters a new phase this week. Meta, TikTok and YouTube are headed to trial in LA over allegations that their platforms are fueling a youth mental health crisis --> www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

Watch Glinda the Good Plow and all her colleagues at work in almost real time: arlgis.arlingtonva.us/Apps/Snow/Sn.... #ArlWX

The White House posted an edited photo of the activist involved in the Minneapolis church protest, made to look like she was crying.

NEWS: The Social Security Administration has referred two DOGE employees for Hatch Act violations after discovering contacts with a political group seeking SSA data to overturn election results. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.

Here are 50 of the 300k civil servants purged by Trump. "A portrait of the void that will haunt American life." The woman trying to get seeds to Sudan, the woman modernizing our tsunami warning system, the top investigator of Chinese counterintelligence... www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Meta Platforms on Monday named former Trump administration official Dina Powell McCormick as its president and vice chairman, boosting the company's lobbying efforts in the U.S. capital.

👋Work update: My job is changing in 2026. I'll be writing about tech, U.S. politics and policy. I'm interested in how the industry is influencing the Trump admin. Still based in D.C. and will keep an eye on federal workers when I can. Reach me at [email protected].

"I am starting to miss the government. It used to be that when I brought milk home, I could drink it. Now I have to do all of this research." Alexandra Petri looks at the effects of President Trump's federal workforce cuts.

This seems duplicative? Unless I am missing something?

The U.S. government's civilian employee headcount is at its lowest level in at least a decade, according to government data. The drop is the result of President Trump's campaign to shrink the federal government. www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

Last week, we published a story detailing ICE's strategy for recruiting new officers, including targeting "gun rights" supporters and geo-fencing ads around gun shows. Ex-ICE director told me: “That mentality you’re fostering tends to inculcate in people a certain aggressiveness" wapo.st/3Ngmo9C

"Rank-and-file prosecutors and agents have expressed serious concern that a denigrated, distracted and depleted work force hurts the government’s ability to identify and stop terrorist plots, cyberattacks, mass violence and fraud." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/u...

Facing a New Year where traditional journalism outlets face gigantic challenges, there is a bit of good news: Consumers have never had more power to choose where and how they get information. Here's an essay w/some ideas on how to pick trustworthy sources. https://loom.ly/dSUyk5c

“While many of DOGE's initial outsized promises to increase efficiency and slash spending never fully materialized, the Trump administration has not given up on those goals.” www.npr.org/2025/12/22/n...

On DOGE’s watch, federal spending did not go down at all. It went up. But is still led to cuts that closed offices, canceled programs and deprived people of food, medicine and other aid. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/u...

Scoop: The lone employee behind CISA's Pre-Ransomware Notification Initiative resigned on Friday rather than take a forced reassignment to FEMA. CISA says PRNI will continue, but sources said David Stern's loss will be a major setback for it. My story: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cisa-ra...

Roughly 25,000 people have expressed interest in joining the Trump administration's cadre of engineers known as Tech Force, a senior Trump administration official said on Tuesday, as the U.S. government looks to install staff with AI expertise in federal roles. www.reuters.com/business/med...

1 - the exec branch can't decline to spend $ Congress appropriated 2- the fed govt can't use federal $ to extort states over policy/political disagreements 3-the fed govt can't use federal $ to impose conditions unrelated to the funding program 4-the fed govt can't use federal $ to coerce states

"On DOGE’s watch, federal spending did not go down at all. It went up." From @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/u...