Ruth

West Philly+DC native. current staff @us_senate. Alum @HHS_ASPE, @USHouse staff, @GMMB, @UMich, @UofIllinois

[Reuters @Reuters]

A Reuters analysis found 96% of Trump's second-term clemency grants went to recipients who didn’t meet longstanding Justice Department guidelines, such as a five-year wait after conviction or demonstrated remorse https://t.co/tKw9IAyrYW @specialreports

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This is really stupid, and it’s not getting enough attention.

The Trump administration is pulling a working $368 million ocean monitoring system out of the water, equipment taxpayers already bought, built, and sank into the deep ocean.

And they are doing it right when the oceans are behaving in ways that alarm the scientists who study them.

Record-breaking temperatures.

A system of Atlantic currents that may be lurching toward collapse.

The response?

Yank out the instruments and walk away.

That is not budgeting. That is smashing the gauges while the engine is on fire and calling it efficiency.

For what? The Trump administration dressed it up as a “nimbler approach” and “smart lifecycle management,” which is fancy nonsense for “we shut it off and hoped nobody would ask why.” There is no return-on-investment analysis. They cannot show taxpayers save a dime, because the gear is already paid for and the science it produces protects real money and real lives.

The kicker: the same people killing the monitors want to mine the deep sea for minerals. So they are destroying the only tools that could measure what that mining does. That is not an accident.

That is the point. You cannot see the damage if you break the instruments first.
https://t.co/MzE4AW1QBv

[Matt Viser @mviser]

SCOOP: Despite insisting that a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund has been scrapped, the administration is quietly assuring allies that payout plans remain on track, @S_Fitzpatrick reports.
https://t.co/MD2pfzIGIZ

[Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann]

Scoop: a very popular, bipartisan prior authorization bill once again qualifies for the House consensus calendar. Ways & Means might mark it up, but nothing has been announced yet.

https://t.co/piWL819vfn

[Paige W. Cunningham @pw_cunningham]

Scoop: HHS plans to appoint ER doc Mark Shirley as chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. He was picked by his daughter, HHS employee Malia, who has been in charge of screening USPSTF candidates. https://t.co/wpPdy2MO0Q

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

Scientists at Trump’s EPA say they are being told to make chemical risks “disappear on paper.” Not to study or manage them, but to make them vanish.

When a safety test on a household chemical shows danger, supervisors reportedly ask to keep shrinking the scenario until the poison looks safe.

They have reassigned senior scientists to paperwork and handed life-and-death risk assessments to staff with less experience. They have installed former chemical industry lobbyists to run the very offices that are supposed to regulate the chemical industry.

A gift to industry, paid for with your family’s health.

They are even throwing out research on how certain chemicals hit certain communities harder, calling decades of established science “DEI.”

You can make risk disappear on paper.

The cancer does not disappear.

The birth defects do not disappear.

The infertility does not disappear.

The kids drinking the water and getting sick do not disappear.

The EPA exists to protect people, not to protect the profit margins of the people poisoning them.

Every American deserves to know what is happening. #TrumpMakesUsSick

https://t.co/5DwXgxBybt

[Matthew Herper @matthewherper]

I’ve been writing about this for years. Yes.

[Jamesetta Williams 💕 @jamesetta_w]

Actually apart from Trump’s health, the story that really made me convinced media outlets are silencing themselves was the Homan bribery story. The guy was literally caught on FBI hidden camera taking $50k in a Cava bag. Should be catnip for DC journalists! Barely covered.

[CIDRAP @CIDRAP]

In its 50 years, global vaccination program generated $16 in benefits for every $1 invested

An economic analysis credits WHO’s Expanded Programme on Immunization with saving 154 million lives and slashing infant deaths 40%. https://t.co/QP7Nyzd6lv

📷: UNICEF Ethiopia/Flickr cc

[Ben Crump @AttorneyCrump]

Four USPS workers have died at the Palmetto, Georgia mail sorting facility since it opened just two years ago, including Eric Smith and Demarcus Little, whose deaths have left coworkers searching for answers. Now, workers are raising concerns about safety and the inability to reliably call for help inside the building. No one should fear losing their life simply for going to work!

[ProPublica @propublica]

New: U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy, who previously ran a company that provides aircraft for fighting wildfires, has proposed ending Forest Service inspections of those aircraft. One of the company’s aircraft failed an inspection because of a crack in its wing. https://t.co/u2dxZr2663

[Margot Sanger-Katz @sangerkatz]

TIL reading the Medicare Trustees Report: Medicare now spends more on outpatient care than hospital care.

[Chef José Andrés 🕊️🥘🍳 @chefjoseandres]

.@SenTedCruz the guy who didn’t defend his wife and who left Texas as an brutal Snow storm was arriving to Texas, talking about the meaning of “masculine”…🤣🤣🤣😆😅😇hello?

[Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @HelenBranswell]

#HHS refused for weeks to confirm what was widely known: Jeffery Taubenberger had been removed as acting director of #NIAID. Today HHS confirmed that John H. Powers is now acting director.
Why this happened & why HHS refused to admit it remains undisclosed. https://t.co/GEGJNXCz82

[Adam Isacson @adam_wola]

GAO: Before allowing an untested (and since-replaced) contractor to start operating the massive Fort Bliss migrant tent detention camp for $1.3b, ICE *didn't even inspect the place first*.

3 detainees died there. ICE inspectors later found 49 violations.

https://t.co/jMAm1qXctv

[NBC News @NBCNews]

Brad Paisley urges his followers to sign a petition to stop the construction of a 69,000-square-foot data center that would be 50 yards from the Nashville Zoo, which he called “an absolute nightmare scenario” in an Instagram Reel. https://t.co/EmxKUw5oav

[Capital Weather @capitalweather]

Official today: Capital Weather is independent once again.

Twenty-two years after launching Capital Weather as an independent weather website for the DC area — and 18 years after first partnering with The Washington Post and becoming the Capital Weather Gang — we are independent again.

Today, we’re officially launching a new chapter at https://t.co/r3dKxepf5m and on our new mobile app. We are committed to making our core forecasts and updates free and accessible to everyone. Your support will make this possible.

Here is what we’ve built and how you can support us.

What we’ve built:

☀️ Around-the-clock forecasts and live updates
📧 Expanded newsletters
📱 A new Capital Weather app
🌦️ Interactive weather and climate tools
💬 A stronger community experience
🎙️ We will continue to provide forecasts on WAMU 88.5

How you can boost and sustain our independent launch:

• Support our work at https://t.co/jh1PQK6W7Q
• Download the Capital Weather app on iOS or Android
• Make Capital Weather your everyday weather source
• Share this post with friends and family across the DMV

Some of you have already joined our community and we could not be more grateful.

Since pioneering digital local weather coverage in 2004, we’ve believed weather is something we all experience together. Your questions, storm reports, photos, and conversations have helped shape Capital Weather into one of the nation’s leading regional weather communities.

Our mission remains the same as always: to be the most trusted everyday source for DC-area weather forecasts, breaking updates, and in-depth weather and climate news.

From sunny days to stormy days — and from Snowmageddon (2010) to Snowcrete (2026) — it’s been an incredible ride.

Thank you for being part of this community. We’re incredibly excited for what’s ahead.

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

Since the WSJ editorial board mentioned my earlier post about Justice Alito’s son, I’m happy to reply. Pointing out that his son works for an agency whose interests may come before the Supreme Court is not harassment. It is basic transparency.

The federal recusal statute, 28 U.S.C. § 455(a), requires a judge or justice to step aside from any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned. That standard is about public confidence in the courts. It does not require proof of actual bias.

Whether a particular case would require recusal depends on the specific facts, including the nature of the case and the family member’s role. Reasonable people can disagree about where that line should be drawn. But the existence of the relationship itself is a legitimate subject of public discussion.

If the risk of a 4-4 tie were enough to keep a Justice on a case, no Justice would ever recuse from anything, since every recusal raises that same possibility. The recusal statute already weighs that cost and still commands stepping aside when impartiality is reasonably in question.

The public has every right to know about potential conflicts and to debate whether recusal is appropriate. Transparency is not a threat to judicial independence. It is one of the ways judicial independence maintains public trust.
https://t.co/pi4HCBCAB9

[PBS News @NewsHour]

SNAP enrollment has fallen sharply nationwide since the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer.

More than 3.5 million people have lost access to the food assistance as states implement new eligibility requirements and stricter application processes.

@WmBrangham has more.

[Laiken Jordahl @LaikenJordahl]

BREAKING: DHS just waived all environmental laws to blast border barriers and roads through Big Bend National Park.

This marks the first time in American history the feds have gutted dozens of laws to push industrial-level construction through a national park.