curated news excerpts & citations
Jill Lawrence @ Bulwark: DOGE Targeting Nuclear Safety Brings Back Memories of Three Mile Island
I WAS ASKED A FEW YEARS AGO to name the biggest story I’d ever covered as a journalist. “You’d think Three Mile Island would have been the major story of my career, but history has just kept happening,” I replied.
Yet even after the deadlocked 2000 election, the inauguration of the first black U.S. president, the rise of Donald Trump, and so many other huge stories, that nuclear power plant accident on March 28, 1979, is still in the running for number one. And as I periodically rediscover, it still has the power to haunt.
That’s what happened last week, when ProPublica published an article by Avi Asher-Schapiro headlined “DOGE Goes Nuclear: How Trump Invited Silicon Valley Into America’s Nuclear Power Regulator.” The gist: Young, unqualified, and deeply unserious DOGEbros are “forcing a ‘move fast and break things’ Silicon Valley ethos on one of the country’s most important regulators.”
“The safety culture is under threat,” Allison Macfarlane, a former chair of that regulator, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told ProPublica. That was admirably restrained. This is a chilling investigatory account of corruption, cronyism, and lack of care.
(Jill Lawrence @ Bulwark more…)
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Greg Jaffe, Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper and Adam Entous @ NY TImes: Hegseth Strikes Two Black and Two Female Officers From Promotion List
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Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff, Ricky Buria, reportedly told Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll that Donald Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events.
(Greg Jaffe, Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper and Adam Entous @ NY TImes more…)Dean Blundell: Donald Trump Refusing Promotion For Black Female Officers Because “He does not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events.”
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – March 27, 2026
The ongoing battle over funding Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents at U.S. airports gives a detailed view of Republican governance in this era.
Republicans hold a majority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. They also hold the White House. On paper, this control makes it look as if Republicans should be able to put anything they want into law. But the reality is that the extremism of President Donald J. Trump and the MAGA Republicans is so unpopular that those clinging to it are making it impossible for the Republicans to govern.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Business Insider: Last-minute TSA deal, lasting chaos
The Senate has moved forward with a deal to free up funding for the Department of Homeland Security, teeing up legislation for the House to end the shutdown.
…Acting head of TSA Ha Nguyen McNeill said this week that more than 480 officers have quit since the shutdown started. And while that’s a fraction of the TSA’s roughly 50,000 agents, it’s not nothing. In fact, McNeill warned that this summer’s World Cup could become an issue.
It takes four to six months to train TSA officers, but the games start in less than three months. The math ain’t mathing.
(Business Insider more…)Carl Hulse, Megan Mineiro and Robert Jimison @ NY Times: House Republicans Revolt Over Bill to Reopen D.H.S., Deepening Shutdown Rift
G.O.P. lawmakers said they would not accept a Senate-passed measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security, dimming the chances for a quick end to the crisis crippling airports.
Mychael Schnell and Kevin Frey @ MS NOW: House Republicans privately express ‘tremendous concerns’ with Mike Johnson’s play call on DHS
Tami Luhby and Kaitlan Collins @ CNN: Trump has ordered TSA workers be paid, regardless of what Congress does. Here’s what we know
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Steve Karnowski @ AP: A Minneapolis woman recounts death of Alex Pretti as lawyers eye a class action lawsuit
A Minneapolis woman who confronted federal immigration officers alongside Alex Pretti in January was among a group of potential litigants who spoke out Thursday about alleged excessive force against people protesting or monitoring the enforcement surge in Minnesota.
Georgia Savageford, who introduced herself as Wynnie at a news conference, said she was inside an officer’s vehicle when she saw federal agents shoot Pretti.
(Steve Karnowski @ AP more…)
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Lisa Needham: What do you do when you can’t trust the government?
The haze of contradictions and confusion is a feature, not a bug.
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These constant reversals about what he plans to do next aren’t always random or delusional, but the sheer volume of Trumpian proclamations that seem divorced from reality does a terrific job of obscuring when something is deliberate.
(Lisa Needham more…)
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Damita Menezes @ NewsNation: Iran‑linked hackers claim breach of FBI Director Kash Patel’s email
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Paul Krugman: The End of Immigration
Americans despise ICE, but it’s “succeeding” nonetheless
(Paul Krugman more…)
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
ICE Accountability Project
ICE deaths 2026 – They deserve remembrance and justice.
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
- January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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