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Monthly Archives: February 2025

Workers at NASA Told to ‘Drop Everything’ to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites

404 Media: “NASA personnel were told to “drop everything” to scrub public sites of mentions of DEI, indigenous people, environmental justice, and women in leadership, according to a directive obtained by 404 Media. The directive, sent on January 22 and obtained by 404 Media, states:“Per NASA HQ direction, we are required to scrub mentions of the following terms from our public sites by 5pm ET today. This is a drop everything and reprioritize your day request. Note that the list below is the list that exists this morning, but it may grow as the day goes on. 

  • DEIA 
  • Diversity (in context of DEIA) 
  • Equity (“ “) 
  • Inclusion (“ “) 
  • Accessibility (“ “)
  • MSI 
  • Minority Serving Institution 
  • Indigenous People 
  • EEJ 
  • EJ 
  • Environmental Justice 
  • Underrepresented groups/people 
  • Anything specifically targeting women (women in leadership, etc.)”

New OPM Memo – Legality of Deferred Resignation Program

New OPM Memorandum – RE: Legality of Deferred Resignation Program – To Heads and Acting Heads of Departments and Agencies, FROM: Charles Ezell, Acting Director, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Andrew Kloster, General Counsel, U.S. Office of Personnel Management. DATE: February 4, 2025.  “On Tuesday, January 28, 2025, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”)… Continue Reading

CFPB halts work after Trump appoints Bessent as acting head

Washington Post [unpaywalled]: “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau halted much of its work to investigate and penalize corporate wrongdoing Monday, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — tapped to lead the watchdog on an acting basis — ordered an agency-wide review to “promote consistency” with the new Trump administration. Shortly after assuming the post, Bessent and… Continue Reading

Heads Up for Government Employees – How Elon Musk Says He Catches Leakers at His Companies

This Intercept article is from December 2022 but has all the hallmarks of what Musk and DOGE are now perpetrating within our federal government agencies, using OPM, GSA and Treasury’s massive databases of fiscal,  financial data and PII, on all Americans. …To begin with, a wide array of document watermarking measures can identify the source… Continue Reading

OpenAI’s ‘Deep Research’ Gives Students a Whole New Way to Cheat on Papers

Gizmodo: “Very few former students can claim they never wrote a last-minute research paper the night before it was due. AI tools are already giving students all new ways to fake their papers. Now, OpenAI’s new “Deep Research” tool seems perfectly designed to help students fake their way through a term paper unless asked to cite… Continue Reading

Deferred Resignation Email to Federal Employees, January 28, 2025 – updated Feb 4, 2025

Via LLRX – Deferred Resignation Email to Federal Employees, January 28, 2025 – updated Feb 4, 2025 – I have updated this article with links to new documents pertaining to directives made by non government civilians to federal government employees to resign their jobs using a purported buyout offer. The emails and “offers” were not… Continue Reading

Data brokers can keep selling your social security number, says new CFPB chief

The Verge: “Treasure Secretary Scott Bessent has been named the Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the bureau announced today. Bessent quickly instructed the agency to “to stop all rulemaking, communications, litigation, and other activities,” reports Bloomberg Law. A source inside the CFPB told Bloomberg Law that his order “appeared to shut… Continue Reading

Fast fires

Reuters Graphics: “Fires are growing faster in the western United States. The fastest of them – termed “fast fires” – often erupt near towns and account for most structural wildfire damage according to researchers who analyzed over 60,000 fires from 2001 to 2020. Fast fires grow about 4,000 acres or more on their fastest day,… Continue Reading