📌 Cost-Cutting, A Corruption Index Fall, More

President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to work with his administration to cut costs.

Asked about critics who’ve called his anti-government efforts a “hostile takeover” of the executive branch, Elon Musk told reporters: “The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the people are going to get.”

Musk said Trump’s administration would “restore democracy” by eliminating the independence of the professionalized civil service — “this unelected fourth, unconstitutional branch of government, which is the bureaucracy.”

Musk also suggested that executive branch agencies have “in a lot of ways, currently, more power than any elected representative” and claimed federal employees were illegally enriching themselves to the tune of tens of millions of dollars and said his effort is also targeting alleged fraud in federal spending.

Musk said the Department of Government Efficiency’s goal is to increase productivity, and doing so would “increase the total output of goods and services, which means that there's a higher standard of living available for everyone.”

The executive order requires the heads of federal agencies to “coordinate and consult with DOGE to shrink the size of the federal workforce and limit hiring to essential positions” and directs the Office of Personnel Management, already led by Musk allies, to promulgate new rules for federal worker conduct.

Many countries had their worst showing in over a decade in the annual Corruption Perceptions Index.

Transparency International, which compiles the index, found 47 of the 180 countries it surveyed had their lowest score last year since it started using its methodology for its global ranking in 2012. It said that “global corruption levels remain alarmingly high, with efforts to reduce them faltering.”

The group also pointed to worldwide risks from corruption to efforts to combat climate change. It said few transparency and accountability mechanisms enable climate funds to be embezzled or misused, while “undue influence,” often from the private sector, obstructs the approval of ambitious policies.

The organization measures the perception of public sector corruption according to 13 data sources, including the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and private risk and consulting companies. It ranks 180 countries and territories on a scale from a “highly corrupt” 0 to a “very clean” 100.

Denmark held on to first place with an unchanged 90 points, followed by Finland with 88 and Singapore with 84. New Zealand dropped from third to fourth, shedding two points to 83. South Sudan slid to the bottom with just eight points, displacing Somalia, followed by Venezuela and Syria.

The US slid from 69 points to 65 and from 24th place to 28th. Transparency International noted the US Supreme Court adopted its first code of ethics in 2023, “but serious questions remain about the lack of meaningful, objective enforcement mechanisms and the strength of the new rules themselves.”

Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday criticized what they called the Trump administration’s “extreme” efforts to reshape the US.

They vowed to oppose those changes. But with Republican control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, Democrats have limited options at their disposal.

“There's no identified leader of the party,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said of Democrats’ attempts to stop [President Donald] Trump. “They don't have a clear vision. They seem rudderless.”

“The Democrat Party's tantrums are exactly why they hold no majority in Congress, and their candidate is not in the White House,” Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer told reporters on Tuesday. “DOGE is rightly pulling back the curtains that have been closed for years.”

Democrats have had some success temporarily stopping Trump’s executive orders in the US court system, but other changes may take time, said Casey Burgat, legislative affairs program director at The George Washington University.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats would support legislation funding the government but called on Republicans to negotiate bipartisan. A short-term resolution for funding expires March 14. Funding past that date needs 60 votes in the Senate to pass. Republicans hold the majority with 53 seats.

Thousands of miles beneath our feet, Earth’s inner core may be spinning, growing, and changing speed and shape.

Although these movements — picked up as seismic waves traveling through the planet — have scant effect on us surface dwellers, they help bring into focus a more dynamic picture of Earth’s insides.

No instruments can penetrate close to the depths needed to study the core, so scientists rely on natural events that go through it — seismic waves from earthquakes. John Vidale, a seismologist, and his colleagues compiled data from earthquakes in 1991–2023 in the South Sandwich Islands.

From there, the seismic waves travel directly through Earth toward sensors at the Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Yellowknife Seismological Array in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

The researchers narrowed in on earthquake pairs that occurred when the inner core rotated in the same position so that any variations they saw could not be due to Earth’s rotation. Indeed, in data from 2004–2008, unexplained variations arose in the waves arriving at Yellowknife.

That led the team to conclude that the inner core, much like Earth itself, is not a regular sphere but a gradually shifting one with spots that rise and fall up to miles within years and deflect seismic waves hitting those locations. Vidale said we are “basically seeing [the inner core] for the first time.”

The US winter virus season is in full force, and by one measure, it is the most intense in 15 years.

One indicator of flu activity is the percentage of doctor's office visits driven by flu-like symptoms, which has been higher than the peak of any winter flu season since 2009–2010, when a swine flu pandemic hit the nation, reported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Other viral infections can be mistaken for flu. But Covid is on the decline, according to hospital data and CDC modeling projections. Available data also suggests that another respiratory illness, RSV, has been fading nationally.

So far this season, the CDC estimates, there have been at least 24 million flu illnesses, 310,000 hospitalizations and 13,000 deaths — including at least 57 children. Traditionally, flu season peaks around February.

About 44% of adults got flu shots this winter, the same as last winter. But coverage of children is way down, at about 45% this winter. It's usually around 50%, according to CDC data.

Testing results indicate two strains of seasonal flu are causing most illnesses — a Type A H1N1 and a Type A H3N2. Health officials are closely watching a third strain, a bird flu known as Type A H5N1, which has sickened tens of millions of animals but is known to have infected only 67 people in the US. https://abc7.com/post/flu-season-u

The FBI said it discovered 2,400 new records related to the assassination of former president John F. Kennedy.

Federal agencies are working to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order last month to release thousands of files. The FBI said it’s working to transfer them to the National Archives and Records Administration for inclusion in the declassification process.

While most of the collection — which includes over 5 million pages of records — has been made public, researchers estimate that 3,000 files haven’t been released, either in whole or in part. The FBI did not say in its statement what kind of information the newly discovered files contain.

Jefferson Morley, vice president of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a repository for files related to the assassination, called the FBI’s disclosure of the files “refreshingly candid.” Morley said it sets a precedent for other agencies to come forward with documents that haven’t yet been turned over to the National Archives.

The Warren Commission, established by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination, found that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and that there was no evidence of a conspiracy. But that conclusion never quelled a web of alternative theories over the decades.

The waters of Cape Cod Bay are coming for the big brown house perched on the edge of a sandy bluff high above the beach.

Erosion has marched up to the concrete footings of the multimillion-dollar home where it overlooks the bay. Sliding doors that opened onto a wide deck with a hot tub are now barricaded by thin wooden slats that prevent anyone from stepping through and falling 25 feet to the beach below.

Officials worry the home’s collapse will damage delicate beds in their harbor where farmers grow oysters that are among New England’s most prized. A report commissioned by the town projects if nothing is done, the 5,100-square-foot home will tumble into the bay within three years.

The house was built in 2010 on Cape Cod on the bay side of the peninsula. Its original owners sought permission in 2018 to build a 241-foot-wide seawall to stave off erosion. Permission was rejected because it might affect the beach and the water flow. Doubts were also cast over whether it would save the house.

A New York attorney bought the house in 2022 for $5.5 million, even as its future was in doubt. He later sold the house to CQN Salvage, a company incorporated in October, that the buyer’s lawyer, Tom Moore, was also representing.

Moore wrote to the town, saying it “is on notice to take whatever steps it deems prudent to prevent the collapse of the embankment and the other consequences of further erosion. CQN Salvage is ready to work alongside the town in such efforts but will not fund them.” Moore said the “bare minimum estimate” to remove the house was at least $1 million.

“So, you plan to do nothing and allow it to fall into the water?” the town’s conservation agent asked. “I plan to ask you to not let it fall into the water,” Moore responded. The commission voted to extend to June 1 the deadline to comply with its enforcement order. The deed to the property hadn’t yet been transferred.