• DISASTERSClimate Disasters Are on the Rise. These States Want to Make Oil Companies Pay.

    By Alex Brown

    State “climate Superfund” laws have sparked a legal brawl with fossil fuel groups.

  • DISASTER RESPONSEIf FEMA Didn’t Exist, Could States Handle the Disaster Response on Their Own?

    By Ming Xie

    Coordinating disaster response is complex, the paperwork for federal assistance can be frustrating, and the agency does draw criticism. However, it also fills an important role. As the frequency of natural disasters continues to rise due to climate change, ask yourself: How prepared is your state for a disaster, and could it get by without federal aid?

  • THE PERMANENT CRISISBookshelf: Technology, Globalization and Civilizational Decline

    By John West

    Robert Kaplan’s new book paints a portrait of civilization in flux. Drawing insights from history, literature and art, he examines the effect of modern technology, globalization and urbanization on the decline of great powers and increasing domestic polarization.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHAmid Growing Numbers of Measles Cases, Chaos Continues at HHS

    While continuing to peddle alternative remedies to those suffering from measles, Secretary Kennedy also did an interview in which he implied that contracting measles is better than being vaccinated for it. Unfortunately for Kennedy – and those who have contracted the disease — vitamin A and cod liver oil are not going to cut it in responding to this expanding outbreak.

  • CENSORSHIPIn Trump’s New Purge of Climate Language, Even “Resilience” Isn’t Safe

    By Kate Yoder

    In his first hours back in the White House in January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” Yet it was immediately clear he was in fact imposing his own strict rules on language usage.In one executive order, he redefined “energy” to exclude solar and wind power.The term “climate change” was removed from federal website in Trump’s first term, and now “sustainability” and “resilience” have also disappeared.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHTrump’s Data Deletions Pose a Stark Threat to Public Health

    By Chrissie Giles, Bureau of Investigative Journalism

    In just the first few weeks of his second presidency, Donald Trump has taken an axe to the US government’s stockpiles of health data. Sweeping changes have been made to federal websites, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). By gutting government records, the president is obscuring information about life-and-death issues.

  • ARGUMENT: REINING IN DHS I&A How DHS Laid the Groundwork for More Intelligence Abuse

    I&A, the lead intelligence unit of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) —long plagued by politicized targeting, permissive rules, and a toxic culture —has undergone a transformation over the last two years. Spencer Reynolds writes that this effort falls short. “Ultimately, Congress must rein in I&A,” he adds.

  • DEMOCRACY WATCHFiring Civil Servants and Dismantling Government Departments Is How Aspiring Strongmen Consolidate Personal Power – Lessons from Around the Globe

    By Erica Frantz, Andrea Kendall-Taylor, and Joe Wright

    A well-functioning bureaucracy is an organization of highly qualified civil servants who follow established rules to prevent abuses of power. Bureaucracies, in this way, are an important part of democracy that constrain executive behavior. For this reason, aspiring strongmen are especially likely to go after them.

  • ARGUMENT: TULSI GABBRD AS DNI“Tulsi Gabbard as US Intelligence Chief Would Undermine Efforts Against the Spread of Chemical and Biological Weapons”: Expert

    The Senate, along party lines, last week confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National intelligence. One expert on biological and chemical weapons says that Gabbard’s “longstanding history of parroting Russian propaganda talking points, unfounded claims about Syria’s use of chemical weapons, and conspiracy theories all in efforts to undermine the quality of the community she now leads” make her confirmation a “national security malpractice.”

  • DISASTER RESPONSETrump Wants States to Handle Disasters without FEMA. They Say They Can’t.

    By Alex Brown and Kevin Hardy

    Trump has called the FEMA a “disaster” and suggested it might “go away.” He said states would best take care of hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires on their own, with the federal government reimbursing some of the costs. But emergency managers say the federal agency’s role is irreplaceable.

  • FOREIGN ELECTION INTEEFERENCEU.S. Justice Department Disbands Team Investigating Foreign Election Interference

    By Rob Garver

    DOJ is disbanding the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), established in 2017 to investigate efforts by state actors, such as Russia and China, to influence U.S. public opinion, particularly around elections. Trump has been highly critical of efforts by law enforcement to identify and root out foreign interference in U.S. elections, especially after a report by special counsel Robert Mueller and a bipartisan report of the Senate Intelligence Committee found extensive evidence that Russian influence operations had been mounted to benefit Trump’s candidacy during the 2016 presidential election.

  • ARGUMENT: UPHOLDING THE LAW AT THE FBIWhat’s Going on at the FBI?

    The Trump administration has launched a broad political purge of the FBI, aiming to remove senior officials and field agents who are regarded as insufficiently loyal to President Trump. In addition to forcing the retirement of senior bureau leaders, the FBI’s interim leadership is now trying to identify agents and other personnel who had worked on the Jan. 6 investigations. Benjamin Wittes writes that “A lot of people at the bureau—leadership and street agents, analysts and staff alike—are flirting with heroism right now” by engaging in conscientious objection: they “are upholding the law, which is closely aligned with their own oaths and the FBI’s culture, and the rule of law itself.”

  • DISASTER RESPONSEGet Rid of FEMA? Trump-appointed Group to Look at Shifting Disaster Response to States.

    By Jennifer Shutt

    Governors and state legislatures may have to bolster their natural disaster response and recovery efforts in the coming years as President Donald Trump looks for ways to shift the federal government’s role onto states.

  • ENERGY SECURITYDOE Natural Gas Analysis Released for Public Comment

    By Thérèse Boudreaux, The Center Square

    The future of U.S. liquified natural gas exports remains complicated as the incoming Trump administration will have to contend with a recent Department of Energy analysis now open for public comment.

  • MILITARY TECHNOLOYU.S. Tech-Defense Leaders Want to Upend the Establishment

    By Bill Sweetman

    Elon Musk wants to cancel the F-35, get rid of manned combat aircraft generally and rely more on drones. But it was no surprise, however, even without Musk’s comments along those lines, that the US Air Force punted any decision on the Next Generation Air Dominance air-combat project to the next administration.