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Gee, I wonder why.

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Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the 9–0 opinion in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission.

Catholic Charities Bureau is a nonprofit organization that functions as an arm of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Superior, Wisconsin. The bureau oversees several other entities that render charitable services to communities across the state.

Wisconsin law excuses religious organizations that are “operated, supervised, controlled, or principally supported by a church or convention or association of churches” from paying state unemployment tax.

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In an energy conversation dominated by buzzwords and breakthroughs, it’s easy to overlook the quiet, proven solutions that are already delivering results. Exhibit A: wood pellets.

These compact cylinders aren’t flashy or trend on social media. For the uninitiated, they are carriers of renewable carbon and energy, sourced from responsibly managed forests; a real, scalable, domestic resource that delivers energy security, climate value, and rural jobs while sustaining and growing forests. Wood pellets are emerging as one of the smartest plays in America’s energy and climate portfolio.

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Among the many iPadOS 26 features Apple plans to unveil at WWDC next week, one curious addition stands out: Apple Pencil reed calligraphy, as reported by Bloomberg. But what does that actually mean?

Last year, Apple introduced the Apple Pencil Pro, bringing squeeze gestures, barrel roll detection, and haptic feedback to its stylus lineup for the first time. Now, with iPadOS 26, it’s pairing those hardware upgrades with a new software feature that’s bound to resonate with Arabic users and calligraphy enthusiasts everywhere.

A few weeks ago, Mark Gurman reported on his Power On newsletter that Apple had “been expanding its retail footprint” in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and India, and that Apple was on track to announce two features that would please users in those regions.

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Caloric restriction and methionine restriction-driven enhanced lifespan and healthspan induces ‘browning’ of white adipose tissue, a metabolic response that increases heat production to defend core body temperature. However, how specific dietary amino acids control adipose thermogenesis is unknown. Here, we identified that weight loss induced by caloric restriction in humans reduces thiol-containing sulfur amino acid cysteine in white adipose tissue. Systemic cysteine depletion in mice causes lethal weight loss with increased fat utilization and browning of adipocytes that is rescued upon restoration of cysteine in diet. Mechanistically, cysteine-restriction-induced adipose browning and weight loss requires sympathetic nervous system-derived noradrenaline signalling via ?3-adrenergic-receptors that is independent of FGF21 and UCP1. In obese mice, cysteine deprivation induced rapid adipose browning, increased energy expenditure leading to 30% weight loss and reversed metabolic inflammation. These findings establish that cysteine is essential for organismal metabolism as removal of cysteine in the host triggers adipose browning and rapid weight loss.

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This week, the Supreme Court tossed out the Mexican government’s lawsuit against seven major U.S. gun manufacturers, holding that a federal statute called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act barred Mexico from filing the lawsuit in the first place.

In the suit in question, Mexico alleged the gun companies were civilly liable for billions of dollars in damages for violence committed in Mexico by Mexican drug cartels, on the theory that the companies aided and abetted unlawful sales of firearms to Mexican traffickers.

The Court’s unanimous opinion in the case, Smith & Wesson v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos, is a resounding victory for America’s lawful gun industry. Among other things, it ensures that foreign governments can’t use abusive litigation to dictate America’s national gun policy or compel American gun companies to undermine the constitutional rights of American citizens.

The ruling also underscores some inconvenient truths for the Mexican government about the reality of gun violence in that nation. Try as it might to cast one of America’s most regulated industries as the villain orchestrating with drug cartels to keep Mexico awash in violence, the Mexican government’s claims have always been little more than disingenuous attempts to blame anyone but itself for the nation’s cartel-driven and corruption-fueled violence woes.

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A massive American financial institution publicly renounced debanking customers for their political views.

Citigroup Inc. promised not to discriminate against people based on their political views in a statement on Tuesday. Citi also committed to abolishing a 2018 policy that forced customer and product restrictions on gun manufacturers wanting to work with the bank. Citi specifically referenced “recent executive orders” and “regulatory developments” in their statement, likely in response to President Donald Trump’s opposition to debanking.

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Sometimes the old ways are best.

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Discovered by scientists in 2000, more than 700 meters (2,300 feet) beneath the surface, the Lost City Hydrothermal Field is the longest-lived venting environment known in the ocean. Nothing else like it has ever been found.

For at least 120,000 years and maybe longer, the upthrusting mantle in this part of the world has reacted with seawater to puff hydrogen, methane, and other dissolved gases out into the ocean.

In the cracks and crevices of the field’s vents, hydrocarbons feed novel microbial communities even without the presence of oxygen.

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Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed into law Wednesday a measure banning transgender students from girls’ athletic events, making the state the latest to keep transgender athletes from competing on women’s and girls’ teams.

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The U.S. Air Force says it has tested a modified 500-pound-class GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM, optimized for use as an anti-ship munition as part of its Quicksink program. The service has already demonstrated a 2,000-pound-class Quicksink bomb, and the new version could offer a valuable lower-cost anti-ship weapon that bombers and tactical jets could also carry more of on a single sortie. At the same time, there are questions about the exact scope of maritime targets that a Quicksink GBU-38 might be effective against.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) announced the test of the GBU-38-based Quicksink munition today, but did not say when exactly it had occurred. A B-2 Spirit stealth bomber dropped the weapon over the Gulf Test Range, which the 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida manages. The Air Force first unveiled the Quicksink program in 2021 after a test of the 2,000-pound-class type, which is a modified GBU-31/B JDAM.

…

At least when it comes to the 2,000-pound-class version, the Quicksink bomb combines the JDAM kit with a new imaging infrared seeker fitted to the nose. The Air Force has said in the past that the resulting munition, which is capable of engaging moving targets, navigates to a designated area first via GPS-assisted INS before switching over to the seeker. The weapon then finds and categorizes the target by checking its length against a detailed internal reference database. The seeker then provides additional course correction data to put the bomb on a path where it is intended to detonate right next to the target ship’s hull, just below the waterline. Initial cueing to the target, which the launch platform or offboard sources could provide, is required. The computer-generated video below depicts a full engagement cycle.

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The U.S. Army has reached its fiscal year 2025 recruitment goal of 61,000 active-duty enlistments—four months ahead of schedule—marking what officials call a pivotal moment in military readiness and national morale.

No more sharing showers with transgender freaks? No more GirlBoss commanders? Damn that Trump!

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The demand for O–negative blood — the universal donor type — often exceeds supply and donations have a limited shelf life. Looking to address the issue are a group of Japanese scientists led by Hiromi Sakai at Nara Medical University. They’ve developed a new type of artificial blood that can be used in patients of any blood type.

The artificial blood is created by extracting hemoglobin — a protein containing iron that facilitates the transportation of oxygen in red blood cells — from expired donor blood. It is then encased in a protective shell to create stable, virus-free artificial red blood cells. As these artificial cells have no blood type, there is no need for compatibility testing. The synthetic blood can reportedly be stored for up to two years at room temperature and five years under refrigeration. That is a significant improvement over donated red blood cells, which can only be stored under refrigeration for a maximum of 42 days.

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In a rare but resounding act of judicial sanity, the Supreme Court of the United States has delivered an 8-0 ruling that reins in one of the most abused weapons in the bureaucratic arsenal: environmental obstructionism. The case, Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, stemmed from a challenge to a planned railway in Utah, a project that environmentalists attempted to kneecap through endless litigation under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In a time when green tape has been weaponized to stall or cancel everything from pipelines to housing, this decision marks a turning point—and it’s worth celebrating.

 

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The Trump administration is sending three Cabinet members to Alaska this week as it pursues oil drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and reinvigorating a natural gas project that’s languished for years.

The visit by Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin comes after Trump signed an executive order earlier this year aimed at boosting oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in Alaska. It also comes amid tariff talks with Asian countries that are seen as possible leverage for the administration to secure investments in the proposed Alaska liquefied natural gas project.

Their itinerary includes a meeting Sunday with resource development groups and U.S. Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski in Anchorage before heading to Utqiagvik, an Arctic town on the petroleum-rich North Slope where many Alaska Native leaders see oil development as economically vital to the region.

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We truly live in amazing times.

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This is pretty slick, with obvious applications to semiconductor manufacturing.

We live in amazing times.

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The Navy has taken a rare step and relieved a one-star admiral who oversaw the service’s unmanned and small combatant programs, including one of its newest class of warships, according to a statement released Monday.

Rear Adm. Kevin Smith was relieved from leadership of the program office by Dr. Brett Seidle, acting assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.

As the program executive for unmanned and small craft, Smith oversaw the Navy’s design, development, construction, maintenance and modernization of unmanned maritime systems, as well as systems for mine warfare, special warfare and expeditionary warfare. The office is also overseeing the planning and construction of the Navy’s Constellation-class, next-generation guided missile frigates.

Pete Hegseth is cleaning house.

“During his tenure as the major program manager for the Constellation-class frigate, the program office was awarded the David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award for 2021 as the top program office in the Department of Defense,” his biography boasted.

Uh-huh. See USS Constellation Update at the NavyMatters blog for the truth: The program is at least 3 years late and will undoubtedly be even later – and way over budget. That is not a kind of ‘excellence’ that David Packard would have liked.

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If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

The Times (UK).

There is good news for your future palate. It turns out that insect burgers may not be on the menu after all.

And, assuming we are still consuming at least some meat in our climate conscious future, it seems unlikely that our livestock will be eating them either.

A study commissioned by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has found that insect protein is generally worse for the environment than less outré non-meat protein alternatives — such as soy.

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In the race to an all-optical AI data center, a major player has now placed a bet on a different horse. Semiconductor manufacturing giant TSMC announced that it will work with Sunnyvale startup Avicena to produce microLED-based interconnects. The technology is a pragmatic twist on replacing electrical connections with optical ones to meet the high needs of communication among an increasing number of GPUs in a low cost, energy efficient way.

Thanks to the computational demands of large language models and their cousins, AI clusters are facing unprecedented requirements regarding amounts of data, bandwidth, latency, and speed. Sooner or later, the copper wires that connect processors and memory within a single AI data center rack will have to be replaced with optics. “There’s a huge push to get optical connections as close to the board as possible,” says Lucas Tsai, a vice president at TSMC.

Avicena offers a unique approach, using hundreds of blue microLEDs connected through imaging-type fibers to move data. The company’s modular LightBundle platform avoids problems with lasers and their associated complexity that threaten the reliability, cost, and power consumption of other optical chiplets. Tsai says “it’s very unorthodox!” But it is ideal for these short distance applications, and that’s precisely what makes it interesting.

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BLUF: Always put both the seat and the lid down on a toilet before flushing. You’ll be glad you did.

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A majority of Americans are fed up with imploding progressive metro areas transforming into violent crime hellholes because Soros-backed District Attorneys refuse to enforce common sense law and order. Americans are tired of radicals in the Biden administration who knowingly push for open southern borders. At the same time, tax-payer-funded non-governmental organizations facilitate the greatest invasion this nation has ever seen of unvetted individuals – some of whom are on the FBI’s Terror Watch List. The president’s collapsing polling data is a symptom the American people have rejected this mumbling, silent generation president who should be in a nursing home or on a La-Z-Boy recliner at his beach house in the elite-only beach town of Bethany.

In recent years, the tyrannical overreach of government during Covid, BLM riots, and nationwide violent crime eruption, plus the 30-year fixed mortgage rate under 3%, unleashed the greatest-ever exodus of Americans from Demcorat-controlled states and metro areas for safer areas in red states.

The migration trends of the Covid period are still happening today, just less because of housing affordability woes.

However, an entirely new trend is emerging: a venture fund in rural Kentucky is building a new community for folks who want to escape all the chaos of progressive cities.

Called the “Highland Rim Project” (HRP), venture fund New Founding is developing “rural towns and communities nestled in the bucolic hills of the Eastern Highland Rim area of Tennessee and Kentucky.”

Tennessee would be good. I have my doubts about Kentucky, which has state and local income taxes like Indiana.

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Section 241(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act requires that Immigration and Customs Enforcement send deportees back to their nation of origin, or the country in which they boarded the transport that brought them to America.

However, if that fails, the section also allows for the agency to remove aliens to any country that will accept them.

Talks between the United States and countries such as Honduras, Panama, and Venezuela have resulted in the nations accepting illegal immigrants that the United States needs to remove.

Here is a list of some of the countries either in talks with Washington about assisting with deportation or that have already begun the process of accepting other nations’ citizens being deported by the United States.

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Think of it as evolution in action.

NBC News, a Voice of the Crust.

Well, most of a victory.

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And about fucking time.

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The past couple of weeks have seen a lot of drama within the Make America Healthy Again movement. Much of the commotion surrounds President Donald Trump’s new surgeon general nominee, Dr. Casey Means along with her brother, Calley Means, a special adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

A few members of the wider MAHA coalition have cited concerns over their involvement in biotech companies, while others condemn their lack of emphasis on vaccines. Predictably, the far-left media is having a field day, running stories better suited to the E! network than serious media outlets.

Amidst all the distractions, however, major MAHA wins are flying under the radar.

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Nine out of 10 U.S. companies say they expect to bring some or all of their production or sourcing back home in response to new tariffs imposed under President Donald Trump’s trade policy, according to the latest Allianz Trade Global Survey.

So Trump’s strategy is actually working, which you wouldn’t know if you only read the Narrative Media.

As Mulder liked to say, the truth is out there.

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A federal judge on Wednesday struck down regulations requiring most U.S. employers to provide workers with time off and other accommodations for abortions.

TechCrunch.

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but it actually comes from a lab in Maryland.

In 2018, Liangbing Hu, a materials scientist at the University of Maryland, devised a way to turn ordinary wood into a material stronger than steel. It seemed like yet another headline-grabbing discovery that wouldn’t make it out of the lab.
“All these people came to him,” said Alex Lau, CEO of InventWood, “He’s like, OK, this is amazing, but I’m a university professor. I don’t know quite what to do about it.”

Rather than give up, Hu spent the next few years refining the technology, reducing the time it took to make the material from more than a week to a few hours. Soon, it was ready to commercialize, and he licensed the technology to InventWood.

Now, the startup’s first batches of Superwood will be produced starting this summer.

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Previous studies have explored gender and ethnic biases in hiring by submitting résumés/CVs to real job postings or mock selection panels, systematically varying the gender or ethnicity signaled by applicants. This approach enables researchers to isolate the effects of demographic characteristics on hiring or preselection decisions.

Building on this methodology, the present analysis evaluates whether Large Language Models (LLMs) exhibit algorithmic gender bias when tasked with selecting the most qualified candidate for a given job description.

…

Despite identical professional qualifications across genders, all LLMs consistently favored female-named candidates when selecting the most qualified candidate for the job. Female candidates were selected in 56.9% of cases, compared to 43.1% for male candidates (two-proportion z-test = 33.99, p < 10?²⁵² ). The observed effect size was small to medium (Cohen’s h = 0.28; odds=1.32, 95% CI [1.29, 1.35]). In the figures below, asterisks (*) indicate statistically significant results (p < 0.05) from two-proportion z-tests conducted on each individual model, with significance levels adjusted for multiple comparisons using the Benjamin-Hochberg False Discovery Rate correction.

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If you haven’t come across it before, NotebookLM functions as an AI research companion that helps users analyze and interact with their documents, websites, and other content. The tool can generate summaries, create FAQ lists, produce timeline views, and even transform research materials into podcast-style audio discussions with AI-generated hosts. Google originally launched it in 2023, and then launched its NotebookLM Plus plan for businesses, schools, organizations, and enterprise customers in December. NotebookLM Plus is also available as a part of a Google One AI Premium subscription.

One of the big additions with the app is offline access to Audio Overviews, the genuinely impressive feature that sees two hosts have a podcast-style chat about your project sources. Users can now download summaries for listening on the go, which should be handy for those looking to conserve data. Whether offline or online, the app also supports background playback, making it easier to catch up on research insights while multitasking.

The iOS version also adds more interactivity. Users can tap “Join” to engage directly with the app’s AI-powered hosts, allowing them to ask clarifying questions, change the direction of a summary, or toss in an offbeat query.

Sharing content into NotebookLM is now easier than it was via the web app. If you’re viewing a website, a PDF, or a YouTube video, access the share sheet and select NotebookLM to add the material as a source. Google says it plans to expand the range of supported input types over time.

The NotebookLM app is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

The article has a link that will allow getting the app. It appears to be free, but (as is the way of the world) there may be in-app purchases.

The Verge.

One morning last month, I walked into my kitchen to get a glass of water, but my smart faucet was out of battery. I went to sit down in my front room, and the shade was still shut — it was out of battery. I walked down the hall and found a beached robot vacuum — out of battery. I headed outside to feed the chickens, unlocking the back door on the way out. The battery-powered smart lock had done what it was supposed to and automatically locked at 8PM. At least something was working.

The game changer here is wireless charging. Not wireless like putting your phone on a charging pad, wireless like across the room. For the past year, a Wi-Charge transmitter in my ceiling has been shooting infrared lasers at a photovoltaic panel on the specially modified Alfred DB2S smart lock on my back door, keeping its battery hovering at 100 percent. So I never have to deal with a dead lock when going to feed my chickens.

To get this souped-up setup cost around $1,250, required cutting a hole in my ceiling, and is only available through an early access program (the Wi-Charge-compatible Alfred lock can’t be purchased off the shelf). However, despite this extra effort, after a year of living with a wirelessly-powered smart lock, whose battery I never have to mess with, I want this for everything in my smart home.

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NYU Tandon-led research team discovers unprecedented genetic adaptations in Gowanus Canal organisms, revealing a potential new approach for cleaning contaminated waters and recovering valuable resources

Naval Gazing.

This is an excellent discussion of some recent proposals to fix what is wrong with the current U.S. Navy by someone who knows what he’s talking about. An interesting read for those who like such things.

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While I was in Japan over winter, one thing that stood out to me was the incredible public transport system. Efficient and reliable, as expected, but the tap-in-tap-out gates at the stations were suspiciously fast. The London Underground gates don’t work nearly as quick with Google Pay or any of my other contactless cards – what gives? I spent some time researching what makes Japan’s transit card system (IC cards) so unique compared to the West, and all of the interesting bits I learned along the way.

…

What’s interesting about Japan (and Asia in general) is that they have their own type of NFC which basically does not exist in the West: FeliCa, a standard developed by Sony, officially classified as NFC type F (as opposed to MIFARE, which is type A). In fact, FeliCa came first, being developed in 1988; as opposed to Philips’ (now NXP) MIFARE which was introduced in 1994. FeliCa started getting widespread adoption initially not in Japan, but in Hong Kong, through its public transport Octopus cards in 1997 – only later did JR East adopt FeliCa for its Suica transit cards in November 2001, and Rakuten started using FeliCa for its Edy cards (the name reminds me of something…). After that, a bunch of Asian countries adopted it, like Vietnam and Bangladesh. They fill the same niche in those countries as they do in Japan: contactless prepaid cards and transit tickets.

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When it comes to AI, the spotlight tends to shine on the dramatic: Models that ace medical exams, write like seasoned authors, or spit out images indistinguishable from real photos. But while those headlines grab attention, the real transformation is happening quietly, behind the scenes in the form of micro-automations.

These are not all-competent copilots. They’re surgical, single-task automations that chip away at the inefficiencies baked into our everyday workflows. And done right, they shift the productivity curve without anyone noticing.

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The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday on whether nationwide injunctions violate the Constitution, after lower courts have issued 40 nationwide injunctions against the second Trump administration.

“Universal injunctions exceed the judicial power granted in Article III which exist only to address the injury to the complaining party,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued.

The case, Trump v. CASA, concerns nationwide injunctions that lower court judges have ordered, pausing President Donald Trump’s order interpreting the 14th Amendment as not guaranteeing what is known as “birthright citizenship,” the idea that if someone is born in the U.S. to alien parents (who are not foreign diplomats or enemies in a hostile occupation), they are immediately a citizen.

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Well, maybe they are, and maybe they aren’t.

The days of rogue district court judges hijacking executive authority may finally be numbered. On Thursday, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a consolidated case, Trump v. CASA, which challenges lower court rulings that blocked President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants. Despite the constitutional authority granted to the executive branch on immigration matters, three district judges issued sweeping nationwide injunctions halting the order.

Now, the highest court may have the chance to rein in judicial overreach and restore balance between the branches of government.

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U.S. energy officials are reassessing the risk posed by Chinese-made devices that play a critical role in renewable energy infrastructure after unexplained communication equipment was found inside some of them.

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In the coming weeks, investors in nine public companies worth at least $1 billion each will vote on proposals to ditch Delaware as their place of incorporation, potentially denting the state’s longtime reputation as Corporate America’s capital, Reuters has found.

Five companies with a stock market value of at least $1 billion have moved their legal home out of Delaware since last year, in what some have nicknamed “Dexit.” Tesla made a high-profile move to Texas last year and in April, President Donald Trump’s social media company Trump Media & Technology , which owns the Truth Social platform, decamped to Florida.

Most of the companies are dominated by a significant shareholder or founder. Delaware judges have expanded the court’s most stringent legal standard to a growing range of situations involving controllers, increasing the risk of shareholder lawsuits.

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Researchers have used the protein-structure-prediction tool AlphaFold to identify1 hundreds of thousands of potential new psychedelic molecules — which could help to develop new kinds of antidepressant. The research shows, for the first time, that AlphaFold predictions — available at the touch of a button — can be just as useful for drug discovery as experimentally derived protein structures, which can take months, or even years, to determine.

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Hair follicles go through repeated cycles of growth, rest, and shedding. At the heart of these cycles are hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs), which are responsible for producing new hair after the old ones fall out. In the new study, scientists discovered that these stem cells require a protein known as MCL-1 to function properly. When MCL-1 was deleted in mice, HFSCs quickly underwent stress and died. Without the stem cells, the process of hair regrowth halted completely.

In experiments where MCL-1 was removed from adult mice, researchers also shaved small patches of fur to test recovery. They found that in the absence of MCL-1, the shaved patches did not regrow any hair. In contrast, mice with normal MCL-1 expression experienced routine regeneration. This points to the protein’s essential role in maintaining healthy HFSC populations in adults.

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Artnet reports that on his daily walks around Paris, Egyptologist Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier of Paris Sorbonne University and Institut Catholique de Paris began to notice unusual hieroglyphics on the giant obelisk standing in the city’s Place de la Concorde. The monument was erected during the reign of Ramesses II (reigned ca. 1279–1213 B.C.) and originally stood outside Egypt’s Luxor Temple, but was moved to France in the 1830s. Olette-Pelletier believed that the carved stone block could feature crypto-hieroglyphics, secret messages involving puzzles or wordplay that only Egypt’s educated and intellectual elite would have been able to read. He was given the opportunity to examine the 70-foot obelisk up close as it underwent cleaning prior to the 2024 Paris Olympics, and confirmed that the symbols did indeed contain at least seven examples of crypto-hieroglyphics. These essentially sought to remind those who could read them that Ramesses II had been chosen by the gods and claimed his ancestry from Amun-Re and Maat. Their location on the stone would have only made them visible to nobles who arrived at the Luxor Temple by boat during the Opet festival, which was held annually during the Nile’s flood season and reinforced the pharaoh’s right to rule. “Given the angle of approach, the nobility would have seen the hidden message and reflected: ‘the king confirms himself as god incarnate, who cannot be dethroned,’” Olette-Pelletier said. “It was propaganda aimed at the very high intellectual elite.” To read about obelisks from the Egyptian city of Heliopolis that were later moved to European cities, go to “Egypt’s Eternal City.”

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Marijuana has intrigued people for decades, especially as more places allow it for medical or recreational use. Many see it as a natural product with relaxing properties, yet scientists have been eager to uncover how it might alter the body in subtle ways.

Researchers tracked the cannabis habits of more than 1,000 U.S. adults over roughly two decades. The team included epidemiologist Lifang Hou from Northwestern University, who analyzed blood samples at two points to search for signs that cannabis use may shift genetic markers.

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The Message is: Your fake currency isn’t worth shit, and is getting worse.

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If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

Power Line.

Democrats have sought to block the Trump administration from carrying out its policies by bringing lawsuits before Democratic Party judges, in which the administration’s actions are challenged on various grounds. The Democratic Party’s District Court judges then issue sweeping orders enjoining the government’s actions, sometimes without even hearing from the administration’s lawyers. We have never seen anything like this in our history.

Yesterday the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order in several related cases involving the United States Agency for Global Media, which, among other things, oversees Voice of America. The cases were brought by employees who are being laid off, and entities that had contracts with agencies controlled by USAGM:

On March 14, 2025, the President issued Executive Order 14238, which directed USAGM leadership to reduce the agency to the minimum level of operations required by statute. 90 Fed. Reg. 13043. In response, USAGM placed over 1,000 employees on administrative leave, terminated nearly 600 personal-service contractors, and terminated [Radio Free Asia’s and Middle East Broadcasting Networks’] grant agreements for the 2025 fiscal year.

The district judge entered an order blocking the administration’s actions; yesterday the Court of Appeals stayed that order.