Voices, The Peoples News
February 16, 2025
Published by Jedi Selman Since March 2000 to Inform and Educate
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This daily Voices, The Peoples News is posted through the blog function of www.MPEN-Ohio.net
# Border / Immigration / Migrants / Gangs / Drugs
Colorado organization claims federal agents are illegally arresting immigrants outside courthouses
https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/federal-agents-are-illegally-arresting-immigrants-outside-courthouses/73-f2d76cbe-cc56-4bf8-bd71-0992eef565c9
Justice Department fires 20 immigration judges from backlogged courts amid major government cuts
https://apnews.com/article/trump-immigration-court-judges-fired-firings-d35eed0f685739c4a19d4c8baf39113a
# Chemicals / Herbicides / Pesticides / Bugs
Agricultural pesticide exposure linked to childhood cancers, study says
https://usrtk.org/healthwire/pesticide-exposure-linked-to-childhood-cancers/
Social network attacking pesticide critics shuts down
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/v-fluence-pesticide-critics
# DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency]
Internal DOGE documents lay out plans for ‘Phase 3’ to begin on Wednesday: Internal documents contain bullet points on how to force workers out of their jobs while avoiding legal entanglements down to how to phrase employee dismissals in emails and phone calls. The report notes the nation is currently in the midst of “Phase 2” which will give way to the first elements of “Phase 3” on Wednesday which will be in effect until July.
https://www.rawstory.com/doge-musk-government/
Pennsylvania ‘Iron Mountain’ mine drawing attention of Elon Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/business/money-report/company-ripped-by-elon-musk-that-stores-government-records-in-a-mine-may-actually-get-a-boost-from-doge/4109417/?os=icxa75gdubaevcfca9&ref=app
# Economy / Finance / Trade / Banks
President Trump Wants to Eliminate the IRS: President Trump’s Cease and Desist to IRS Protects Middle Class Families and Small Businesses from IRS Audits and Weaponization
https://waysandmeans.house.gov/2025/01/23/president-trumps-cease-and-desist-to-irs-protects-middle-class-families-and-small-businesses-from-irs-audits-and-weaponization/
Metals Crucial to Clean Energy Are Getting Caught Up in the US–China Trade War. After a Chinese export ban, can the US get gallium and germanium from Canada—or will tariffs get in the way?
https://www.tradebriefs.com/archive/GfaSz1C.html
Banks Get Their Pro-Merger Regulator. The new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants ever-bigger banks, which isn’t great for the rest of us.
https://www.levernews.com/banks-get-their-pro-merger-regulator/
# Education / Schools
Republican state Rep. Andy Hopper of Decatur has filed a bill to abolish the Texas Education Agency, stating that it is a bloated bureaucracy that isn’t accountable to taxpayers.
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article300329229.html#storylink=cpy
# Employment / Labor / Unions
Here are the agencies purging federal workers
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5147209-agencies-purging-federal-workers-explained/
Federal Workers’ Unions Are Waging the Fight of Their Lives. With the White House and Elon Musk’s DOGE working to dismantle the government, civil service employees are finding ways to push back.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/16/federal-workers-trump-musk-firings/78728081007/
‘We’re under attack by billionaires’: Fired federal workers speak out on terminations. USA TODAY spoke to federal workers fired from the departments of Education, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and Transportation who said they were shocked, angry and emotionally distraught by the terminations.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/16/federal-workers-trump-musk-firings/78728081007/
Elon Musk’s dream comes true: The federal board that protects workers does not exist, at least for now
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/15/business/nlrb-trump-musk-workers/index.html
Federal workers forced to return to offices with no desks –– and plenty of chaos:
https://www.rawstory.com/federal-workers-2671162220/
Nissan CEO speaks out as struggling company set to shutter plants & slash 9,000 jobs after merger talks with Honda end
https://www.the-sun.com/motors/13535821/honda-nissan-eliminate-jobs-no-merger-plants/
# Energy / Pipelines / Mining / Oil
Trump administration lays off as many as 2,000 Energy Department employees
https://san.com/cc/trump-administration-lays-off-as-many-as-2000-energy-department-employees/
# Environment / Climate / Infrastructure / EPA / BLM
“We Feel Terrorized”: What EPA employees say about the decision to stay or go under Trump. 300 career employees at the Environmental Protection Agency have left. Those who remain face a painful decision: resign or work for an administration that plans to radically reshape the EPA while reversing environmental protections.
https://www.propublica.org/article/epa-workers-resign-trump?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=propublica-youtube
Fired National Park Service workers left feeling angry, betrayed
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2025/02/national-park-service-employees-speak-out-layoffs-trump-cuts
# Food General News
House GOP eyeing $230B in cuts, includes SNAP reductions
https://san.com/cc/house-gop-eyeing-230b-in-cuts-includes-snap-reductions/
# General News
If Democrats Don’t Champion the Civil Service, Who Will? With the federal workforce facing an onslaught by Trump and Elon Musk, its employees—and the populace it so dutifully protects—desperately need defenders.
https://qoshe.com/new-republic/bryce-covert/if-democrats-dont-champion-the-civil-service-who-will/180728534
Pope Francis’s Stunning Rebuke of JD Vance Exposes MAGA’s Dark Soul. The vice president took a stab at theology to defend the administration’s rank cruelty. Then a higher authority weighed in.
https://newrepublic.com/article/191427/pope-francis-jd-vance-maga-dark-soul
Musk Gets More Government Cash While Pushing Education Cuts. The kicker? His companies already take in $8 million a day in public funds.
https://www.levernews.com/musk-just-scored-more-government-cash-while-pushing-education-cuts/
# Gov / Politics
Trump vs. the Courts: Will He Drive Us Over the Constitutional Cliff? It’s about to be a constitutional crisis, if it’s not already. And we’re only three weeks in. Buckle up.
https://newrepublic.com/article/191450/trump-courts-judiciary-constitutional-cliff
What the Hell Happened to Democrats in Detroit? Trump won Michigan by around 80,000 votes—and urban Wayne County accounts for virtually all of it. Yes, the explanation starts with the Arab American vote. But it hardly ends there.
https://newrepublic.com/article/190894/detroit-wayne-county-trump-democrats-arab-american-vote
‘Quoting Napoleon’: Critics rage as Trump makes ‘most un-American statement ever uttered’
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trumps-post-sparks-napoleon-dictator-comparisons-critics-2031828
President Trump takes steps that indicate an openness to corruption
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-green-lights-bribery-corruption-091656308.html
Trump administration cuts US efforts to support democracy at home and abroad
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/16/nx-s1-5297844/the-trump-administrations-funding-cuts-are-impacting-pro-democracy-organizations
Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine has emboldened Putin and pulled the rug from under Nato allies. The ramifications of the president’s appeasement of Russia will be felt widely, not least in the alliance he recklessly undermined
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/15/donald-trumps-betrayal-of-ukraine-has-emboldened-vladimir-putin-and-pulled-the-rug-from-under-nato-allies
# Gov / Politics / Global
Zelenskyy characterizes US security support as unreliable, calls for creation of ‘Armed Forces of Europe.’ The United States can no longer be relied on to ensure security in Europe, which is at risk of being pulled apart by Russia, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy said in a speech on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/2025-02-15/munich-security-conference-day-two-16840211.html
# Law Enforcement / ATF / FBI / CIA
‘Vexatious litigant’: Lawyer devises ‘radical’ plan that could stop Trump in his tracks. Judges, Coale argues, can cut through the time-wasting by ruling the filer is a “vexatious litigant” — and dismissing their claims out of hand.
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-executive-order-2671162929/
# Legal / DOJ / ICJ / International Criminal Court [ICC]
Trump Won His War on the Justice Department. The once-independent agency has been forced to embrace a change of mission—serve the president’s exclusive interests, and carry out his revenge on the American people.
https://newrepublic.com/article/191430/trump-bondi-justice-corruption-roberts
# Media
USPS slammed for ‘ignoring’ mail issues as customers watch packages ‘bounce around different facilities for weeks.’ THE United States Postal Service has been slammed by customers for “ignoring” their mail problems amid thousands of missing packages.
https://www.the-sun.com/news/13549858/usps-ignoring-mail-issues-packages-indiana/
# Medical / Health News
We Are About to Learn What a Post-Truth Approach to Public Health Feels Like. Trump and Musk are slashing global vaccination efforts, funding for medical research and access to health information.
https://truthout.org/articles/we-are-about-to-learn-what-a-post-truth-approach-to-public-health-feels-like/
Atlanta-based Centers for CDC to lose nearly 1,300 employees under Trump administration job cuts
https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2025/02/14/cdc-lose-one-tenth-workforce-under-trump-administration-job-cuts/
Obamacare Outreach Funding Cut by 90 Percent. The Trump administration on Feb. 14 cut funding for an outreach program under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that helps people sign up for health insurance coverage
https://www.kff.org/quick-take/a-90-cut-to-the-aca-navigator-program/
# Military / DOD / General News
Army redirecting millions collected from soldier BAS pay meant for food services elsewhere: The money is collected in what amounts to a tax on troops — taken from their Basic Allowance for Subsistence payments, roughly $460 per month that is automatically deducted from the paychecks of service members
https://www.military.com/daily-news/investigations-and-features/2025/02/14/over-151-million-taken-soldiers-paychecks-food-costs-spent-elsewhere-army.html
# Science / Science Engineers
Elon Musk Built His Wealth on Taxpayers Money—Now He’s Destroying the Future of Science
https://www.newsbreak.com/inquisitr-news-522568/3814340416998-elon-musk-built-his-wealth-on-taxpayers-money-now-he-s-destroying-the-future-of-science
# Technology / Artificial Intelligence / Cybersecurity
Musk’s DOGE team raises major cyber security concerns
https://www.kulr8.com/news/national/musks-doge-team-raises-major-cyber-security-concerns/article_5df98884-9664-5938-9e2c-1c710182b72c.html
# Veterans / VA
VA is latest dept to face budget cuts under Trump: The President extends these tax breaks largely for the rich all while maliciously cutting programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other crucial programs. Destructive cuts to these programs hurt millions of veterans and their families who depend on them for their health, safety, and economic well‑being.
https://democrats-budget.house.gov/resources/reports/president-trumps-extreme-budget-cuts-hurt-veterans
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