Ernst, an Iowa Republican, is one of the most influential voices in Congress on military topics. Ethics and military experts say her relationships with top Air Force and Navy officials created potential conflicts of interest. read more
During a remote appearance at a technology conference in San Francisco, Musk told attendees the U.S. should privatize "as much as possible." read more
The president said a Florida school "secretly socially transitioned" a 13-year-old. Emails suggest otherwise.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a task force established by President Donald Trump with the goal of slashing unnecessary government spending, has terminated leases of more than 700 offices across the country so far. read more
Jill Lawrence: Don't count on the courts to stop it.
From Texas Children's Hospital this week:
Protect Your Child from Measleswww.texaschildrens.org
03/04/2025
Why does my child need protection against measles?
Measles is a highly contagious virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. It is so contagious that up to 9 out of 10 people will be infected if unprotected and exposed to the virus.
About 1 out of every 3 people who catch measles will develop a complication. The most common complications are ear infections and diarrhea, but more serious complications like pneumonia and encephalitis (swelling of the brain due to infection), or even death can occur due to measles.
Nearly 1 out of every 5 people who catch measles ends up in the hospital. Measles can be especially dangerous in infants and young children, as well as persons with weakened immune systems. They may need to be hospitalized to receive oxygen or mechanical ventilation due to difficulty breathing or IV fluids due to severe dehydration.
Thats it? In 2019 there were 1200+, I don't recall anyone caring then?
#5 | Posted by oneironaut
The 2019 U.S. Measles outbreaks: A public health crisiswww.texaschildrens.org
In recent decades, many public health experts warned that the widespread protection from vaccine-preventable diseases we achieved in the U.S. was under threat. As parental vaccine hesitancy increased and unvaccinated individuals clustered geographically, experts believed these trends were creating an untenable situation in the U.S. which would eventually result in the reemergence of vaccine-preventable diseases.
This is precisely what occurred this year--89% of the measles cases in 2019 were in individuals who were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccine status. Sadly, as a result, we as a nation lost the critical protection afforded to us through herd immunity " the protection that occurs when enough of a community is vaccinated to interrupt disease transmission. Herd immunity is especially important for measles, a disease so highly contagious that the virus can live for up to two hours in an airspace where an infected individual was and for which vaccination levels must remain extremely high.
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health departments across the U.S. fought to get measles under control and prevent the U.S. from losing its measles elimination status, we at Texas Children's Hospital knew we had a job to do. We needed to make parents aware of the risk measles poses to the U.S. After all, most parents, myself included, have never experienced measles. We have no memory of its painful reality. As a result, some parents fail to understand and appreciate the impact measles can have on our children and communities. Such complacency and failure to vaccinate allowed measles to take a foothold in our country and it could do so again if we don't learn from our mistakes and ensure we vaccinate our children, on time, every time.
We might make some mistakes, Musk said:
DOGE D'oh: Nuclear Waste Facility Editiontalkingpointsmemo.com
As DOGE continues it's federal government wilding spree, purportedly searching for examples of waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, we seem to have had another case of keyword search gone awry.
One of the leases DOGE decided to cancel is the lease for Skeen-Whitlock Building in Carlsbad, New Mexico, a 90,000 square foot facility which manages the nation's only storage area for DOD-created nuclear waste and the only operating deep geologic nuclear waste storage facility in the world.
If you are on Bluesky, you can check out this thread where Carpenter is collecting articles about Trump voters who didn't think his policies would hurt them but now that they have, suddenly regret their votes and wish they could take them back:
Amanda Carpenter @amandacarpenter.bsky.social
"I thought we were supposed to be in a new era of meritocracy. Not the indiscriminate firing of people," said one Republican congressional aide granted anonymity to speak candidly.
bsky.app