Prairie Fire blog

Healthcare Dive. White House seeks 12% cut to HHS in 2027

The Trump administration is requesting about $111 billion in discretionary funding for the HHS, nearly $16 billion less than its budget in 2026. – PL

NYT. Forest service will close research stations that study wildfire risk

Scientists say their work on fires and climate change could be lost as the agency moves its headquarters to Utah from Washington and shuts 57 research stations. – PL

NYT. CDC pauses testing for rabies and pox viruses

The diseases were removed from a list of tests the agency conducts for state and local health departments. Experts worry that with drastic staff reductions, the testing may not resume. – PL

Stat News. Medicare is restricting care for 1 million Americans based on a faulty assumption. Congress must intervene

Limiting choices for ostomy supplies is not the way to save money. – PL

Stat News. Government watchdog urges FDA to finalize guidance for advisory committee conflicts of interest

Agency often fails to share how it determines whether panel members have conflicts, GAO says. – PL

Stat News. NIH director’s invocation of Vannevar Bush’s legacy to promote Trump science policies sparks pushback

Biographer accuses Bhattacharya of ‘hijacking Bush’s legacy’ to legitimize administration actions. – PL

Stat News. CDC leadership in limbo as Trump administration set to miss deadline to nominate director

Director of the National Institutes of Health, Jay Bhattacharya, is leading the agency on an acting basis, but will have to give up some responsibilities. – PL

National Security Archive. A disappearing data chronology

The Disappearing Data Chronology lists fundamental changes to the federal information landscape under the Trump administration, including major data losses and restorations, legal challenges to information takedowns, and threats to archival collections. – PL

Stat News. How the next CDC director can win back America’s trust

Restoring trust will require disciplined reform and leadership that is prepared to implement it. – PL

More Than Just Parks. Trump Administration Orders Dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service

The Trump administration is closing the Forest Service’s regional offices, including over 50 research facilities, and moving its headquarters to Utah (the home of the sell-our-public-lands movement). “When these facilities close, the experiments die. The datasets end. The partnerships with universities that took generations to build collapse.” — MK

Honolulu Civil Beat. Removal of federal data affects us in our hometowns

The bottom line is that the public is being kept in the dark and decision-making is hobbled. Yet the outcry over disappearing data has been limited mostly to academics, scientists, finance people and others who regularly mine government data and documents to inform their work. – PL

Stat News. Researchers surveyed by STAT detail the toll of grant cuts: labs shutting down, data unanalyzed

A nationwide survey of nearly 1,000 researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health revealed that, while some of the administration’s policies have been reversed and others never came to pass, all is not well with the nation’s research enterprise. – PL

Stat News. NIH grant terminations affected women scientists more than men, study finds

Female Ph.D. students and assistant professors saw disproportionate impacts. – PL

Stat News. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) conflict is test of Trump’s support for RFK Jr.’s vaccine policy overhaul

A court ruling has put the administration in a delicate political position. – PL

Science Literacy Project. Viewpoint: There are dangerous consequences to firing credible scientists and gutting US health agencies

Editorial by a former NIH leader and biomedical research advocate, worries that the rapid and substantial loss of institutional knowledge will be bad for those who NIH ultimately serves: patients and the American people. – PL

Dataindex.us. Announcing Take Action Monthly Office Hours

Data Index will begin hosting drop-in office hours starting April 3rd. Visitors will be free to ask questions, although it seems geared toward helping those who wish to respond to public comment calls regarding changes to government data collection. — MK

Inside Higher Ed. Halfway Through the Fiscal Year, NIH Has Only Obligated 15% of Research Funding

“The science community fears the funding agency’s slow contract and grant making could result in another rush of multiyear obligations at the end of the fiscal year.” Last year, the multiyear funding approach resulted in fewer new grants being awarded, which impacted early-career researchers. — MK

Politico. The Education Department is poised to lose its longtime HQ

The Education Department is being evicted from the Lyndon B. Johnson building, and the Energy Department is moving in. I imagine this is meant to cause disruptions to both agencies, making them easier to dismantle or manipulate. — MK

The Guardian. Experts fear “unethical” vaccine trial in Africa is “prototype” for US studies under RFK Jr.

Danish researchers whose work on effects of vaccines has been called into question are at the center of US vaccine policy. – PL

NYT. Trump administration readies plans to dismantle renowned science lab

Proposals include transferring a supercomputer to the University of Wyoming and shifting a space weather lab to a private company. – PL

NBC News. Federal judge blocks RFK Jr.'s changes to childhood vaccine schedule

The ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by major medical organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics. – PL

Stat News. NIH grant awards are again lagging far behind historical averages, analysis shows

Short on staff, the agency has focused on funding renewals rather than new grants. – PL

Stat News. Smoking rates are at a historic low. You’re not hearing about it from the government

Government data released without analysis is leaving experts to fill in gaps left by federal cuts. – PL

Nature. NIH pivots away from agency-directed science

The NIH is moving away from funding research through requesting proposals on specific topics to funding “unsolicited” proposals. This shift raises concerns over the future of collaborative projects and research into niche, neglected, or under-studied topics, which have historically benefited from funding through RFA (requests for applications) calls. — MK

Science. Energy Department merges nuclear and particle physics programs, unsettling researchers

“The largest U.S. funder of the physical sciences—the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science—will merge its high energy physics and nuclear physics programs, the agency told scientists this week. Many researchers worry the move may signal a marginalization of both fields as, under the direction of President Donald Trump, the Office of Science pushes into artificial intelligence (AI).” — MK

NY Post. Federal education bigs threaten accrediting agency if DEI standards aren’t nixed — with $20B on the line

Another example of the Trump administration using federal funding cuts to suppress conversation and academic study around racial disparity. The US Education Department said it would revoke recognition of the agency that accredits higher education institutions, such as Columbia University, on the basis of its “continued DEI stance.” Losing federally-recognized accreditation would disqualify these institutions from receiving grants and student loan funding from the US government. — MK

The Data Rescue Project. AtlasPlus Data Rescued

A volunteer with the Data Rescue Project scraped and uploaded the CDC’s AtlasPlus databases. The AtlasPlus tool, which is still up on the CDC’s website, allows reseachers to create visualizers out of HIV, hepatitis, STD, and TB data, along with social determinants of health (SDOH) indicators. Although the tool is fairly accessible, the databases it draws from were not—until now. The script the volunteer used to download the data files is also available in the DataLumos upload. — MK

Prison Policy Initiative. New Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie report shows effects of Trump’s immigrant detention campaign on incarceration numbers.

The number of people currently imprisoned for immigration reasons is up 32%, the number of people detained by ICE is up 58%, and the number of facilities holding ICE detainees are up 65% from last year. The immigration crackdown is expanding carceral infrastructure, plus it’s “almost entirely” reponsible for the growth in prison and jail populations in 2025. — MK

NYT. Nature report, killed by Trump, is released independently

A draft assessment of the health of nature in the United States is grim but shot through with bright spots and possibility. – PL

NYT. Feeling the effects of 260,000 Federal jobs lost

Agencies that oversee climate science and adaptation have been particularly hard hit. – PL

Pen America. Removal of slavery, racism exhibits highlights ongoing effort to purge history from national parks

The Trump administration determined the history lesson was “disparaging” to the republic. – PL

Capital & Main. Federal cuts revive a California lawmaker’s push for single-payer health care

Assemblymember Ash Kalra says attacks on the Affordable Care Act underscore the urgency of creating state-run health insurance. – PL

University of California. UC sponsors SB 895 to place a $23 billion bond to fund scientific research in California on the November ballot

The $23 billion bond would protect jobs, sustain lifesaving research, improve health, and bolster the state’s innovation economy. – PL

Stat. How Stand Up For Science is trying to ‘pull every lever’ to win over the public

A year after its first set of protests, the organization is doing far more than marching. – PL

Stat. In its campaign against gender-affirming care, Trump administration seeks to clear a big legal hurdle

DOJ is appealing federal judges’ orders blocking subpoenas for patient records. – PL

Stat. Across ERs, Tylenol orders for pregnant people dropped after health officials linked drug to autism

And prescriptions for Leucovorin, falsely believed to cure autism, spiked. – PL

The Guardian. RFK Jr’s pick to review Covid vaccines authored misleading research, experts say

US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says the MIT professor is “more than qualified” to serve on the agency’s vaccine advisory panel and calls ‘attacks’ on him “politically motivated.” – PL

Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). UCS submits comments imploring preservation of National Center for Atmospheric Research

“This is clearly an attack on science to serve the political purposes of the White House through the Office of Management and Budget,” UCS scientists Dr. Carlos Martinez and Dr. Marc Alessi wrote in the letter. They noted that The US National Science Foundation (NSF) renewed its cooperative agreement with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) three years ago to manage the center through 2028 with full support and no expressed objections. – PL

NYT. His Harvard Lab Was Thriving. Then Came the Cuts

A case study of the Trump administration’s impact on public health researchers. After the funding for Dr. Mair’s research lab was terminated, he had to return top-of-the-line equipment, dramatically reduce experiments, and dedicate time to donor hunting in the private sector in order to keep paying his staff. He was eventually awarded federal funding once more, but the months of stress destroyed his trust in the system. The days of chasing scientific breakthroughs with confidence are gone, funding fear is here to stay. — MK

Reuters. Leaked Interior Department database reveals US plans to revise historical information

“An internal government database… revealed the scope of the Trump administration's ​effort to revise or remove information on African-American history, LGBT rights, ​climate change and other topics at hundreds of national park ⁠sites.” — MK

Stat. Kennedy announces new vaccine advisory committee members after meeting rescheduled

The new appointments come during an unstable time for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). – PL

People. Trump administration is scrubbing LGBTQ+ questions from Federal surveys. Here's why it matters

“Federal data on sexual orientation and gender identity are essential for understanding LGBTQ populations in the United States,” said the author of a UCLA Williams Institute study about the government's new approach to data collection. – PL

Stat. Autism researchers rebuke Kennedy, form independent advisory group

The group wants to be a bulwark against potential misinformation from federal health agencies. – PL

The Sacramento Bee. What are federal workers’ free speech rights? Yosemite ranger sues after firing

Shannon “SJ” Joslin, a nonbinary biologist and park ranger who studies bats, filed a lawsuit that names the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, US Department of Justice and US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California as defendants, along with US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Jessica Bowron, acting director of the National Park Service. – PL

Medical Professionals Reference. Nearly 20 States Scale Back HIV Medication Programs

An analysis by the health research group Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found that 18 states have adopted cost-cutting changes to their AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, known as ADAPs. — PL

NY Times. EPA faces first lawsuit over its removal of major climate rule

Environmental and health groups sued the EPA over its elimination of the endangerment finding. The matter is likely to end up before the Supreme Court. – PL

ProPublica. Chlorine dioxide, raw camel milk: The FDA no longer warns against these and other ineffective autism treatments

The FDA has taken down a webpage warning about therapies and products making ‘false claims’ of treating autism. It’s part of a series of actions the agency has taken under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to discredit long-established science. – PL

The Guardian. “We want to rebuild trust”: fired CDC workers form group to combat Trump’s war on science

As also reported in Newsjunkie.net, former employees stepped up to create the National Public Health Coalition to advocate for public health after Trump’s cuts to the agency. – PL

Popular Science. The archivist preserving decaying floppy disks

Abandoning those floppies entirely risks relegating decades worth of scientific research, government records, software, and personal correspondence to the dustbin of history. – PL

Mother Jones. Trump’s War on National Park Signs Is Even Dumber Than You Think

“As Trump’s clandestine censorship campaign proceeds, displays that focus on persecution and environmental degradation have become particular targets. But the Park Service is also planning to remove signs that merely acknowledge the existence of controversy or conflict.” — MK

NY Times. Trump administration erases the government’s power to fight climate change

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repealed the bedrock scientific finding that says greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being. It means the agency can no longer regulate them. – PL

Stat News. Trump officials push for skimpier coverage in ACA marketplaces

More deregulation, with big deductibles and lower premiums, may be coming for ACA health plans. – PL

Stat News. Students, faculty mystified as National Science Foundation (NSF) turns back applications for prestigious fellowship program

A seeming uptick in rejections has come with little explanation. – PL

Stat News. America’s disease surveillance system is going dark. Here’s what we can build to replace it

We can’t just wait for Washington to do the right thing. – PL

Federal News Network. Congress fully funded Education Dept, but it’s moving ahead with reassigning employees to other agencies

“The Education Department is moving ahead with plans to dismantle most of its operations, even after Congress agreed to increase its budget and rejected the Trump administration’s calls to move key programs to other agencies.” — MK

NY Times. C.I.A. World Factbook Ends Publication After 6 Decades

The Factbook, a version of which dates to 1962, provided facts, figures, maps and more to generations of economists, professors, journalists and others. – PL

NY Times. Trump administration to cut $600 million in health funding from four states

The states, all led by Democrats, used the grants to support a wide variety of functions, including H.I.V. prevention and surveillance. – PL

NY Times. Trump allies near ‘total victory’ in wiping out U.S. climate regulation

A small group of conservative activists has worked for 16 years to stop all government efforts to fight climate change. Their efforts seem poised to pay off. – PL

CBPP. New Court Filing Reveals Secret Social Security Data Sharing Agreement with Election Denier Group

“Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) officials at the Social Security Administration (SSA) entered a secret data sharing agreement with a partisan advocacy group that aimed to ‘find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain states,’ according to a court filing by the Justice Department on January 16.” — MK

Stat News. 7 pediatric bioethicists: Proposed ban on Medicaid funding for hospitals providing gender-affirming care for minors is deeply unethical

Decisions on gender-affirming care should rest with patients, families, and clinicians. – PL

Stat News. Tenuous biomedical funding has put first-year Ph.D. students in a bind

Worried about the future, labs are turning away students looking for a research home. – PL

Stat News. The EPA just erased a century of public health progress

The agency says the ‘value of statistical life’ is too uncertain to quantify. That’s both incorrect and morally wrong. – PL

Stat News. Unfilled vacancies have depleted NIH advisory councils, key players in grant approvals

Panels are operating without the full range of expertise needed to make informed decisions. – PL

Stat News. Key autism committee is being reshaped to support Kennedy’s vaccine agenda, researchers and advocates fear

New members, many with a history of vaccine criticism, were added to the group, which recently met without any public announcement. – PL

Stat News. CDC pauses, then unpauses billions in public health infrastructure grants to states

Grantees were told that the CDC wanted to “ensure alignment with administration and agency priorities.” – PL

Medscape. France acts against health disinformation with new plan

The strategy is based on findings from the report titled “Health Information: Strengths and Weaknesses Analysis and Recommendations for a National Health Information and Anti-Disinformation Strategy,” which was delivered on January 12. The first actions will begin this month. – PL

American Institute of Physics (AIP). Protecting and advancing the physical sciences; new research agenda meets the moment

Leaders across scientific societies weigh in on AIP’s 2026 research agenda. – PL

Stat News. MAHA says its new food pyramid is affordable and healthy. We asked experts

Whole foods are cheaper than ultra-processed foods, but eating more meat will cost you. – PL

CEP. Preserving and rebuilding public data systems: A framework for funders

In a September 2025 blog post on The Center for Effective Philanthropy site, Karuna Sridharan Chibber, of The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, proposes ways for foundations to support data preservation and continuation, and cites an upcoming website for the Funders for the Future of Public Data. - MK

CBPP. A record of historic harm in the first year of Trump’s second term

Report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on the consequences low and moderate-income people will face as a result of policy actions during the first year of Trump II. “Tens of millions of people will be less able to meet the growing cost of their basic needs.” - MK

Stat News. Trump administration reverses course on $1.9 billion in cuts to addiction and mental health grants

Canceled Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grants reversal came after opposition from lawmakers, mental health groups. – PL

Stat News. Richard Pazdur warns that politics, ‘chaos’ are damaging FDA

Veteran FDA drug regulator, who left the agency last month, says industry hasn’t fully realized the extent of the issues. – PL

AP. These are the 66 global organizations the Trump administration is leaving

Many focus on climate, labor, migration and other issues the Trump administration has categorized as catering to diversity and “woke” initiatives. – PL

Science. Appeals court agrees that NIH cannot reduce overhead payments to academic institutions

Judges uphold injunction by lower court against a 15% flat rate for indirect costs. – PL

Farm and Dairy. USDA begins 2026 down 20% in staff with plans to cut more

USDA losing 20,300 of its 110,300 employees from mid-January through mid-June is big news. Even bigger will be working around that steep drop in experienced staff as USDA attempts to deliver its projected budget of $234 billion in farm, food, and rural programs for FY 2026. – PL

Forbes. How FEMA job cuts could make disasters even more costly

Ongoing job cuts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — particularly cuts to disaster response and recovery staff — are prompting concerns that the agency’s ability to quickly rebuild infrastructure, reopen businesses and efficiently handle aid after disasters could be weakened. – PL

CNN. Judge orders HHS to restore funding for children’s health programs as lawsuit continues

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore nearly $12 million in funding to the American Academy of Pediatrics, including money for rural health care and the early identification of disabilities in young children. – PL

Aerospace America. Preserving NASA’s scientific mission

NASA’s science portfolio faces growing structural pressures driven not by technical shortcomings, but by budgetary instability, funding misalignment, and an increasingly compressed execution environment. – PL

Stat News. NIH begins review of thousands of delayed research proposals, funding 135 on first day

Deal on DEI-related grants called a ‘win for researchers,’ but decisions are subject to political oversight. – PL

Chron. Texas sea turtle expert says she's leaving position 'not by choice'

A renowned sea turtle expert in Texas is leaving her position after 37 years as Texas' coordinator for the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network (STSSN), which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which did not respond to requests for reason for Dr. Donna Shaver exit. – PL

Stat News. Top drug regulator Richard Pazdur set to leave the FDA

Pazdur’s surprise retirement adds to worries about FDA turnover. – PL

Stat News. Trump has ‘shaken the hell’ out of the 80-year research pact between the government and universities. What now?

The American research enterprise has proven to be much more brittle than expected. – PL

NYT. NASA’s largest library is closing amid staff and lab cuts

Holdings from the library at the Goddard Space Flight Center, which includes unique documents from the early 20th century to the Soviet space race, will be warehoused or thrown out. – PL

NYT. Appeals Court upholds prohibition on Trump’s medical research cuts

The ruling on Monday upheld a lower court’s judgment in April that the Trump administration could not drastically slash funding from the National Institutes of Health. — PL

Gizmodo. Trump’s crusade against ‘woke’ climate research threatens solar science

The White House is moving to dismantle a weather research facility in Colorado, a decision that would not only impact climate science on Earth, but our ability to understand space weather as well. – PL

Stat News. Trump administration agrees to reconsider frozen and denied National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant submissions related to DEI

Deal requires agency to review applications on their merits. – PL

Undark. Opinion: Trump supporters distrust science. We need new ways to engage

Funding cuts are devastating for U.S. science, article claims regaining support will require cleaning house and bipartisan messaging. – PL

Reuters. Trump administration to dissolve key climate research agency

National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Co. is the latest effort to gut climate-related research; the agency says cuts would deprive the US of competitive advantage. – PL

NYT. Trump administration plans to break up premier weather and climate research center

Russell Vought, the White House budget director, called the laboratory a source of “climate alarmism.” – PL

UCS. Disinformation Undermines Our Right to Science

One bright spot from COP30 was the launch of the Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change, which 20 countries from Austria to Uruguay have now signed. – PL

Health Affairs. To mitigate the health impacts of mis- and disinformation, states should mandate digital watermarking

Nearly 1.1 million Americans died directly from COVID-19, and this toll was exacerbated by the proliferation of mis/disinformation that exposed and deepened pervasive national health vulnerabilities: the deliberate politicization of scientific guidance, distrust in public institutions, deep-rooted vaccine hesitancy, and anti-science sentiment. – PL

AHCJ: New insights for health journalists from a climate communication research review

A review paper published in October summarizes the global literature published on climate-health communication between 2000 and 2023. The biggest take-home point is the need for more climate-health communication. – PL

Data Rescue Project. Federal Geographic Information System (GIS) data saved and archived

The Data Rescue Project has archived all of the data layers from the defunct HIFLD Open GIS repository in DataLumos. – PL

Protect Science and American Innovation (PSAI). Campaign to protect science and American innovation

The PSAI is leading an initiative to email and call Congress to insist they fight back against attacks on science, medicine, and innovation. – PL

StatNews. NIH shut out hundreds of young scientists from funding to start their own labs

The last 10 months have revealed that the research enterprise that lead to the country’s technological dominance was much more brittle than expected. – PL

The Stakes–Richmond Confidential. California may ask voters to offset Trump cuts with a bond measure to fund scientific research

State Sen. Scott Wiener proposed a way the state could raise its own research funding and steer how it is spent. – PL

Financial Time. Canada launches $1.2bn fund to poach academic US talent

Investment comes as the Trump administration cuts grants and slashes higher education funding. – PL

ProPublica. Livestock overgrazing quietly destroying public lands

A 2014 law allowed for less oversight on cattle grazing, allowing for permits to auto-renew if the Bureau of Land Management is unable to complete the review. Experts are worried this lack of upkeep is being exacerbated by federal job cuts and could lead to major environmental impacts. -acs

Grist. Understanding the silent epidemic impacting migrant workers

According to a 2022 study, high temperatures combined with physically demanding work are driving a surge in chronic kidney disease, which is now one of the world’s fastest-growing killers and likely to become the fifth largest cause of premature death by 2050. This is especially common for migrant workers in the Gulf who often face squalid conditions and extreme heat, sometimes leading to premature death. -acs

Editor & Publisher. The consequences of disappearing government data

Since Trump took office in January, federal data has been consistently disappearing, affecting several forms of data reporting and impacting services like mental health hotlines. Even in cases where datasets are still accessible, they are rarely updated and are occasionally heavily reduced. This is especially evident at the BLS and the CDC. -acs

Grist. Examining the gov shutdown and its impact on America's food chain

In their second term, the Trump administration enacted policies determining who gets to eat, what gets eaten, and who gets left behind. According to Grist, the most recent government shutdown only illuminated fractures in the food supply, and farms, distributors, and consumers alike will soon feel the effects. -acs

Wired. How the government shutdown affected the EPA

During the current U.S. government shutdown, the EPA has experienced widespread confusion and inconsistent furloughs. About 4,400 staffers have been sent home while others remain at work executing deregulatory priorities with little clarity or communication. -acs

Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian. Introducing new American heroes: Citizen Historians

Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian is a volunteer-run project launched in August 2025 to photograph and document every item on display across the Smithsonian Institution’s 21 museums, the national zoo, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. In its first seven weeks, the initiative attracted over 1,500 volunteers, captured nearly 50,000 photographs and videos, and achieved full coverage of all current exhibits with leadership from more than 20 volunteer captains. -acs

Grist. New studies by The Lancet find climate change is killing millions every year

The report warned that the “past 50 years of gains in public health” were at risk due to the destabilization of planetary systems and environmental conditions that humans depend on for survival. -acs

BBC. Glaciers in rapid retreat could lead to faster sea-level rise

In late 2022, Hektoria Glacier retreated by more than five miles in two months. Scientists are rallying behind two main theories, finding an agreement on one definite point: changes happening in polar regions are concerningly rapid. -acs

PBS. Missing government data won't stop the Federal Reserve from rate-cutting

Despite postponed reports, missing data, and shortened statistics, the Fed is adamant about cutting rates in an effort to shore up growth and hiring. -acs

Inside Climate News. Asheboro, NC refuses to remove to toxins from water supply

Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant has polluted the drinking water of 900,000 downstream residents with 1,4-Dioxane. Other municipalities, including Greensboro and Burlington, have sharply reduced their 1,4-Dioxane discharges by pressuring industrial sources to pretreat wastewater or find alternatives. -acs

Grist. White House issues new round of furloughs for EPA workers

The new round of cuts targets employees involved in scientific research and the enforcement of anti-pollution laws, including the U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service’s regional offices, and the Department of the Interior’s main headquarters. Significant research positions are at risk, potentially compromising the accuracy of long-term projects and studies. -acs

ProPublica. The FDA hides factory contamination information

Despite evidence of several pharmaceutical factories being contaminated with pigeon feces, dirty water, and urine, the FDA blacked out the names instead of recalling the medications produced there. The agency also failed to track consumer harm, even with complaints about pills with abnormal tastes or residues, or patients experiencing sudden, unexplained health concerns, including stomach pain and breathing problems. -acs

Alaska Public Media. Flooding from "unusual storm track" ravages western Alaska

Western Alaska is experiencing severe flooding, destroying homes, injuring residents, and sweeping people away. The indigenous towns of Kipnuk, Kwigillingok, and Napakiak have been hit the hardest. The Alaskan National Guard has been deployed by Governor Dunleavy. -acs

CBS. 153 unvaccinated students in South Carolina quarantined after measles exposure

Students were exposed without immunity are now left with no choice but to stay home and quarantine until the transmission threat is over. The South Carolina Department of Public Health stated “it is vital to ensure that the public have received their measles vaccinations.” -acs

Federal News Network. Senate Democrats warn of at risk federal data

According to Senate Democrats, DOGE has put federal data generated by the Social Security Administration, General Services Administration, and the Office of Personnel Management at serious risk. Senator Gary Peters warns of a 65% chance of a catastrophic data breach at the SSA due to a lack of security protocols. -acs

The Atlantic. How vaccine mandates affect pediatrics

Pediatricians face increasing financial pressure to stop offering vaccines due to high upfront costs, limited reimbursements, and rising operational burdens, making immunizations an economic liability in many practices. Doctors are now facing impossible decisions, as insurance companies often refuse to cover vaccination costs. -acs

CBS. Trump administration cancels $8 billion in climate funding amid government shutdown

In the wake of the government shutdown, the Trump administration announced it would cancel $8 billion in climate-related projects across 16 states. Data shows all affected states voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 and are represented by Democrats in the Senate. -acs

Inside Climate News. Study finds freshwater surge disrupting key Atlantic ocean current since 1950s

A new study analyzing chemical signatures from clam shells suggests that a rising influx of freshwater since the 1950s has disrupted the subpolar gyre in the North Atlantic, potentially weakening its ability to redistribute heat globally. A weakening or shutdown of the subpolar gyre and related currents would weaken the northward transport of ocean heat from the tropics to higher latitudes, with varying regional impacts including higher temperatures and increased droughts. -acs

IPI. Access to environmental data is a top priority on International Day for Universal Access to Information

On International Day for Universal Access to Information, the International Press Institute urged governments to guarantee unrestricted media access to climate and environmental data, warning that without it, public oversight of ecological policy and accountability are severely undermined. -acs

The Conversation. A walk across Alaska reveals that losses reported in climate data are very real

Walking across the sea ice off Utqiagvik, Alaska, polar climate scientist Alexandra Jahn, witnesses first-hand the thinning, cracking, and instability of the ice that climate models and satellite data already forecast. These field observations, especially as voiced by Indigenous hunters and scientists, underscore how the accelerating decline in sea-ice duration reshapes traditional lifeways and the resilience of Arctic communities. -acs

Grist. How small details in a 1996 bill could strip away federal land safeguards in Alaska

Republican lawmakers are pushing to use the Congressional Review Act, an obscure legislative tool originally buried in a 1996 bill, to strip away long-standing federal land use plans and environmental safeguards. If successful, this could unravel decades of protections across millions of acres, especially in Alaska’s Central Yukon, and expose a wave of uncertainty for conservation, tribal rights, and land management nationwide. -acs

Global Witness. 146 land and environment defenders were killed or disappeared last year, most for standing up to mining and logging

More than one-third of the victims were Indigenous people and many more were Afro-descendants, with violence most intense in Latin America and Asia, where weak state oversight and extractive industries persist. -acs

George Mason University. Guide to deleted government data

George Mason University’s library runs a guide listing alternative sources for locating deleted government data. The list includes sites taken down since January 2025. -acs

EFF. Electronic Frontier Foundation analysis warns on the dangers of consolidated government data

Rapid manipulation and consolidation of private data by DOGE and other groups into one single super database is illegal, warns EFF. -acs

Inside Climate News. Nature study finds world's top cement and fossil fuel producers play a significant part in global heating events

A new study in Nature finds that emissions from the world’s 180 largest fossil fuel and cement companies are responsible for about half of the increase in intensity of recent global heat waves compared to preindustrial levels. -acs

Bellingcat. Ukrainian citizens are undoing environmental destruction from Russia's war

Farmers and demining teams in Ukraine are racing to clear landmines and other unexploded ordnance using tools from rakes, tractors, metal detectors, to drones and AI-analysis in order to reclaim farmland and revive agricultural output. Lots of land remains inaccessible or only “suspected” contaminated, meaning delays in clearance not only threaten lives but also impose large economic costs as usable land lies fallow. -acs

The Narwhal. Narwhal investigation reveals connections between big oil and the government

An investigation by The Narwhal reveals that many Alberta oil and gas companies listed by the regulator as delinquent in failing cleanup obligations are tied to wealthy and well connected individuals, including former prime minister Stephen Harper and businessman Don Taylor, through complex ownership structures. -acs

The Kansas City Defender. Kansas City residents demand environmental equity

Residents on Kansas City’s East Side are demanding environmental justice and basic infrastructure (such as clean creeks, intact sidewalks, and maintained parks) that have long been neglected compared to more affluent parts of the city. Community members, faith leaders, and local activists are calling for accountability through a funded Brush Creek Master Plan, and an oversight board to ensure promises made by city officials are honored. -acs

PBS. Washington state lawsuit rules Trump admin must restore deleted data on government websites

Following lawsuits from doctors and health organizations, the Trump administration agreed to restore health data to government websites where it had been removed. The Washington State Medical Association was a primary plaintiff, arguing the removal was a political act harming the medical community and patients. Leader of the organization, Dr. John Bramhall stated, "This was trusted health information that vanished in a blink of an eye—resources that physicians rely on to manage patients’ health conditions.” -acs

ProPublica. Burning oil, air pollution, and more emissions than meets the eye

“President Donald Trump’s administration has maintained that drilling in the U.S. is cleaner than in other countries due to tighter environmental oversight,” but locals and workers in Texas oil country tell a different story. Texas attempted to curtail emissions by requiring a permit to flare or vent oil; however, with nearly 100% approval, not much was done to reduce emissions. In fact, released emissions could have powered “more than 3 million homes and generate millions of dollars in tax revenue” if they had not been released into the atmosphere. -acs

Time. Utility bills could be the next hotbed political issue

According to environmental policy scholars, electricity has the potential to play a much larger role in US politics in the upcoming years. There are several factors being considered including the price of operating a business, environmental pollution, and the increase in electricity use with the advent of AI. All of these factors are definitely affecting the consumer, with data from the Energy Information Administration finding that “across the U.S., electricity-price increases have outpaced inflation, increasing 13% since 2022.” -acs

The Wire. Fired federal climate workers bring back shuttered climate.gov on their own terms

A growing group of former federal employees is working to restore critical climate resources removed during the Trump administration. With Climate.gov offline, a new site, Climate.us, aims to fill the gap. The effort is led by Rebecca Lindsay, the former managing editor of Climate.gov, who was fired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in February, alongside hundreds of other ex-employees.

Association of Health Care Journalists. AHCJ calls for more coverage on environmental impacts

The US has a history of environmental injustice against minority groups. The history of industrialization in the Western world is often marked by pollution and sickness, but the past is not behind us. Modern US industry is still harmful, however, it's often ignored while its advances are praised without acknowledging the consequences. Read more to see how we can change that. -acs

The Tufts Daily. Tuft's Fletcher School Institute for Business in the Global Context investigates ways to improve technology and stay sustainable

The Fletcher School “was motivated by three key questions: How big is the digital economy everywhere? What is the pace of change in the growth of digital technologies? Where are the trade-offs between the benefits and the costs of the greatest?” The COVID-19 pandemic brought exorbitant amounts of change all over the world. One of the greatest advancements being the race for a technological revolution. Tuft’s Daily investigates countries that are on the right path, and others that may be inflicting more harm than good. -acs

The Hill. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5481695-climate-change-trump-epa/

85 Climate Scientists have released a report refuting the Trump Administration’s claims that Climate Change is not as bad as we thought. The dismantling of the EPA, along with the placement of Lee Zeldin as its head, has disrupted decades of intense scientific research on environmental impacts. The report directly combats several points raised by the administration, claiming that its findings were not based in real science. -acs

The Open Notebook. Introducing: The Open Notebook, a guide to science writing

The Open Notebook is publishing its first sample science writing syllabus for aspiring science reporters. The guide covers 12 topics in individual modules, ranging from sourcing and interviewing to journalistic ethics. For a more in-depth look into science reporting, check out their full book, The Craft of Science Writing. -acs

Scientific American. What happens when theories of science are disproven?

From Louis Pasteur to Michelson and Morley, science is in a constant cycle of improvement. The desire to expand on ideas, old and new, is never-ending. But what happens when most, if not all, scientists in a specific field change their minds? -acs

Federal News Network. The NSF was once "the jewel of the government" now its a shell of itself 149 National Science Foundation workers signed a letter to Congress expressing concerns about the future of science in the US. Nearly a third of the staff has been laid off, with more facing job losses due to budget cuts. For more details, see the interview with Terry Gerton and Dr. Jesus Soriano, President of AFGE Local 3403 and an NSF researcher. -acs

Louisiana Illuminator. RFK Jr. is dismantling the research programs he promised to back

RFK Jr. vowed to find the cause of autism, now he’s helping dismantle the research initiatives doing just that. Studies done under the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences have found that exposure to tNational Institute of Environmental Health Sciences found that genetics, as well as environmental factors (such as exposure to to certain chemicals during pregnancy) lead to increased cases of autism in children. -acs

The Guardian. Increased NIH budget cuts lead to research impossibilities

Senior officials at the NIH believe there is a “multi-pronged” attack being waged on scientific research. The United States and its universities used to be a research powerhouse, under the current Trump administration, that seems to be changing. Politically driven cuts to NIH funding, particularly in areas like cancer and HIV prevention, are decimating the U.S. scientific research infrastructure. Funding uncertainty, extremely low grant approval rates, and disrupted careers are leading scientists to warn that this disruption may be "impossible to rebuild." -acs

BBC. The US alters global human rights reports, leaving out vital pieces of information

The Trump administration has made big cuts to the US governments reports on global human rights abuses. This report is generally known to be the most comprehensive report of its kind, despite scaling back some reports on countries it favors as allies. Not only have big changes been made going forward, but “entire sections included in reports from previous years are also eliminated, dramatically reducing coverage of issues including government corruption and persecution of LGBTQ+ individuals.” -acs

Reynolds Journalism Institute. RJI is on a mission to reframe reports on drugs

Susan Stellin has been hard at work creating a guide for journalists who want to report on drugs in a “non-traditional” way. What is non-traditional? In this case, it means moving away from approaches based on the war on drugs, race, ethnicity, and drug stereotypes, and moving towards a health-based methodology. She hopes that those interested in similar progress in reporting will take a page out of her resource book. -acs

Harvard Medicine Magazine. Science was once seen as pinnacle of truth, now it falls to the wayside

Federal support for basic biomedical science in the U.S. originated during World War II, inspired by Vannevar Bush’s 1945 “The Endless Frontier” vision, which argued that government-backed basic research would drive technological and societal progress. This model paved the way for institutions like the NSF (founded in 1950) and an expanded NIH, enabling breakthroughs such as the Framingham Heart Study and the Human Genome Project, ultimately helping to save millions of lives. While Bush viewed “Basic research [as] the pacemaker of technological progress,” the current administration appears to be at odds with this belief, seeing research as the enemy of truth with mass takedowns of essential reports. -acs

Milwaukee Independent. US national climate reports are disappearing from federal websites

According to the Milwaukee Independent, websites for the national assessments and the U.S. Global Change Research Program were down as of June 30, with no links, notes, or referrals elsewhere. These legally mandated reports are essential for providing the public with vital information on climate change in their areas. The disappearance of this data, coupled with public denial of climate change from government officials, will create a dangerous society where citizens are unaware of shifts in their own neighborhoods until it is too late. -acs

NPR. The second Trump administration implemented 70% more changes to federal environmental websites compared to his first term

The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative found that “in the first 100 days of the first Trump administration, there were 371 important changes made to websites, while in the same period this year there were 632 changes.” The report also found that climate change information has been altered or removed from federal websites, though less consistently than environmental justice and DEI sites. Data is being removed at an impressive rate, even with fewer volunteers monitoring the disappearing information, the change is stark. -acs

AP. Trump fires Erika McEntarfer, director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics

President Donald Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) after it released its third negative report on job growth statistics in the United States. The government agency's data contradicts the Trump's statements, as the job market is not on the rise. Erika McEntarfer, who was appointed by Biden, is being blamed for manipulating the numbers to negatively impact the Republican establishment and bring embarrassment to president and his cabinet. -acs

Brennan Center for Justice. Trump’s DOJ cuts $820 million in grants that effectively work to reduce crime in the US

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, in April 2025, Baltimore recorded its lowest monthly homicide rate, a 62% drop from the previous year, citing similar trends in other major cities. This is due to a new “all-of-the-above approach” to safety, which involves increased funding for programs alongside traditional law enforcement, such as community programs, youth organizations, and gun violence reduction initiatives. By cutting these grants, effective policy is being abandoned, and these reduced crime rates are at risk.-acs

US Department of Energy. Department of Energy brings public opinion to the front, asking for commentary on the impact of Greenhouse Gases

Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy released a new report evaluating existing peer-reviewed literature and government data on the climate impacts of greenhouse gas emissions. The department says that climate change is real; however, it is not the most important threat at the moment. In fact, the focus on it directly condemns the engineering feats that allowed humanity to flourish over the past two decades, and increased criticism of these systems is, perhaps, more damaging to progress than climate change itself. This comes alongside Lee Zeldin’s announcement that the EPA “doesn’t have the authority to regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions” and that the agency would deregulate carbon emissions requirements for vehicles. -acs

PBS. Trump administration’s NIH budget cuts threaten Sickle Cell research, citing DEI

Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has cut more than $1 billion in NIH grants, gutting several research programs. One notable casualty: Sickle Cell research, which affects approximately 100,000 Americans, over 90% of them Black. -acs

Connecticut Public Radio. The EPA’s scientific research arm to be shuttered by Trump administration

A government sector that “provides expertise for environmental policies and regulations” is yet another victim of budget cuts from the new administration. This shutdown will cause unprecedented changes to the health of Americans and the environment around them, ultimately replacing real scientists with politicians, or with no one at all. -acs

The Duke Chronicle. Fulbright board members announce their resignation, citing accusations of the program's politicization by Trump

In a decision not taken lightly, eleven out of twelve members resigned from the Fulbright board last month. With history as a bipartisan organization, the board attempts to represent the whole of the United States, however, they claim the current administration’s actions are ‘“antithetical to the Fulbright mission and the values, including free speech and academic freedom, that Congress specified in the statute.”’ -acs

TheLogic. Internet Archive Canada preserves Canada's web history, and more

Internet Archive Canada may have launched back in 2006, but its importance really became evident shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump’s first election win in 2016. -gjw

WA State Nurses Assn. Health groups in Washington sue as the federal government deletes vital health data and resources

John Bramhall, MD, PhD, of the Washington State Medical Association warns “These executive-ordered website deletions were driven by ideology, not by science or evidence.” Urging medical professionals to recognize wiping of data as an attack on science, patients, and the medical system at large. -gjw

PBS. Ex-Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden talks getting fired by Trump and the legacy of scholarship

Former Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden first woman and first African-American to lead the National library, details her time at the LOC, citing struggles with the White House and the importance of libraries for all generations. -gjw

Brookings. Deleted US government data creates performance challenges in policy and research

Taxpayer-funded data has disappeared. Now "policymakers are trying to find ways to make sure that people still have access to that data," but there's a still long road ahead in the struggle for comprehensive information and methodology. -gjw

The Appeal. Trump DOJ Erases Trans People from Crime Data Surveys

The federal government will no longer collect data about the gender identity of people who experience violent crime or sexual misconduct. -gjw

IEEE Spectum. Saving public data: more than snapshots

Digital archivists combine efforts to preserve complex government sites. -gjw

Brown Daily Herald. Brown librarians, professors lead effort to archive government data under threat by Trump administration

Frank Donnelly, the head of geographic information systems and data services at the Brown University Library has been working to archive this data being lost to shutdowns. Donnelly said since Trump’s inauguration, “librarians (were) forming different groups across the country to make sure that we had backups of a lot of federal data sets.” -gjw

Forbes. USAID website is offline

USAID’s website, usaid.gov, displays a message stating the server cannot be reached as of March 22, 2025. -gjw

NPR. As Trump administration purges web pages, EOT rushes to save them

Radio interview and transcript. NPR’s Emma Bowman interviews Mark Graham and Brewster Kahle on the effort to save government websites and data.

NPR/KCBX. Reporter Emma Bowman’s article explains what’s at stake re EOT

Six weeks into the new administration, Internet Archive had cataloged some 73,000 web pages that had existed on U.S. government websites that were expunged after Trump's inauguration. The Internet Archive is currently the only place the public can find a copy of an interactive timeline detailing the events of Jan. 6, a product of the congressional committee that investigated the Capitol attack, and has since been taken down from their website.

New Yorker. Can guerrilla archivists save the country’s files from DOGE?

“This is how we know about our country,” social scientist Lynda Kellam told the New Yorker. “People who support the ‘drain the swamp’ mentality don’t seem to understand how much the government does.” Kellam described the vulnerable data as “irreplaceable.” - gjw

NYT. Vast quantities of climate and environmental information have been removed from official websites

Hundreds of volunteers, including EOT Harvest members Internet Archive and EDGI, are working to download government data recreate the digital tools that allow the public to access that information.

WaPo. Curating reality is an old political game, but Trump’s sweeping statistical purges are part of a broader attempt to reinvent truth

Trump has created a smoke-and-mirrors version of reality that counters the evidence, from taxpayer-funded government data, that could frustrate his ambitions. -gjw

Washington Post. Photos are disappearing, one archive at a time

[Indirectly related to the EOT effort] As photographers try to find homes for their work, traditional archives (hard copy photos, negatives, and slides) are also vanishing, especially in local journalism, where generations of photographers built shared visual records of community history. - gjw

Clean Technica. US Cultural Revolution: Bonfire of NASA, NOAA, EPA, CDC, & USDA Climate Programs

NASA, NOAA, NIH, National Science Foundation data and budgets slashed as if Mao's Cultural Revolution lives on. - acb

Columbia Journalism Review. Fighting the Great Federal Website Purge

By preserving such information, newsrooms are not only aiding themselves and other journalists, but are showing data archivists where to dig and supporting countless scientists whose work the current purge has devalued. - acb

AP. Judge tells agencies to restore webpages and data removed after Trump’s executive order

Removing important information from the CDC and FDA websites is delaying patient care, hampering research and hindering doctors’ ability to communicate with patients, the plaintiffs’ attorneys argued in a court filing. - acb

CivilRights.org. Why We Must Stop Trump’s Attempts to Erase Our Communities

These rollbacks do not merely threaten the integrity of scientific research — they undermine the fundamental goals of our federal statistical system to produce and share timely, relevant data while ensuring accuracy, credibility, objectivity, and confidentiality. Eliminating critical data allows for agencies to absolve themselves of accountability, obscures population-policy impacts, and worsens inequities. Without trusted data to make decisions, mistrust and disinformation can proliferate. - acb

GWU National Security Archive. Disappearing Data: Trump Administration Removing Climate Information from Government Websites

Community-led advocacy groups, archivists, and universities scramble to download climate resources and datasets. EPA, NOAA, and CEQ all targets of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. End of Term Web (EOT) Archive and Internet Archive's (IA) Wayback Machine crucial in preserving web data.download climate resources and datasets. EPA, NOAA, and CEQ all targets of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. End of Term Web (EOT) Archive and Internet Archive's (IA) Wayback Machine crucial in preserving web data. - acb

Internet Archive Blog. EOT Update: 500 terabytes of material, more than 100 million unique web pages preserved so far

Coverage includes websites in the .gov and .mil web domains, as well as government websites hosted on .org, .edu, and other top level domains. 

As an added layer of preservation, the 2024/2025 EOT Web Archive will be uploaded to the Filecoin network for long-term storage. Separate from the EOT coalition, this is part of the Internet Archive’s Democracy’s Library project. -gjw

MIT Technology Review. Inside the race to archive the US govt websites

“I consider the actions of the current administration an assault on the entire scientific enterprise,” says Margaret Hedstrom, professor emerita of information at the University of Michigan. -gjw

CNN. What the White House takes down, Wayback Machine puts back up

A model of understatement: “the second Trump administration seems to have taken down more content than usual.” Cue the Wayback Machine. -gjw

Fierce Pharma. CDC’s ‘Wild to Mild’ flu vaccine campaign muzzled amid HHS handover

According to snapshots collected by the Internet Archive, at some point between Feb. 14 and Feb. 18, the Wild to Mild webpage was wiped of its information and resources. - gjw

The Verge. The mad dash to protect environmental data from Donald Trump
“Trump’s second term in office could pose a bigger risk to information about climate change and pollution on federal websites, advocates warn” - gjw

Freedom of the Press Foundation. Here’s how you can help save government data and research

President Donald Trump’s administration has been quick to purge information about “vaccines, veterans’ care, hate crimes and scientific research, among many other topics” from thousands of federal government websites. - gjw

Harvard-Shorenstein Center. Researchers rush to save federal health databases disappearing from government websites

Researchers and students at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health have been scraping and downloading data related to health equity from U.S. government agency websites before they disappear. Their goal is to make the data publicly available through repositories such as the Harvard Dataverse and the Wayback Machine.

Nat’l Security Archive. Trump kills climate science information

Advocacy groups, archivists, and universities scramble to download climate resources and datasets; EPA, NOAA, and CEQ all targets of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. End of Term Web Archive and Internet Archive's Wayback Machine crucial in preserving web data. -gjw

CNN. Scientists fear Trump will erase public research

NYT. Could Trump’s return pose a threat to climate and weather data?

Breaking News I E. What’s in a name? Trump set to wipe government language

Fast Company. The Internet Archive is even more essential than I realized

EOT. Presentations and Papers

Forbes. Safeguarding against a Trump data dump

Verge. How scientists scrambled to stop Donald Trump’s EPA from wiping out climate data — the birth of EDGI

Research Information. Public access to published science “under threat in the US”

AIP. White House Issues New Security Rules for Government-Funded Research

Union of Concerned Scientists. Protecting Government Science from Political Interference

Brennan Center for Justice. Five Cases of Political Threats Against Scientific Integrity