Take a peek at your Friday edition of the #PaperTrail, with the latest in #oversight news:
➡️Probing Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse;
➡️Proud Boy Inside the Intelligence Community;
➡️The Lasting Impacts of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”;
➡️and More.
The Fed's support of a 2021 Silicon Valley Bank merger—declaring the merger would pose no systemic risk—followed Fed Chair Jerome Powell's approval of other deregulatory moves that may have led to the bank's collapse levernews.com/powell-approve…
Federal law prohibits FCC employees from owning stock in firms they regulate, but @jbrodkin found several officials had sizable investments in Comcast, Charter Communications, AT&T and Verizon arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20…
In addition to the FAA and airline industry facing a staffing crisis, they also have a diversity problem: 94% of pilots are male and 93% are white; just 24% of FAA staff and 16% of air traffic controllers are women govexec.com/management/202…
The case of Hatchet (Daniel) Speed is part of a troubling pattern showing that the U.S. military and intelligence community aren't doing enough to root out far-right extremism in their ranks, writes @JamesRisen1theintercept.com/2023/03/13/jan…
"It makes me feel like I'm a criminal": 12 years after the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell", thousands of veterans are still victims of discrimination, fighting to regain their honor and benefits cbsnews.com/news/navy-vete…
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On Nat'l Whistleblower Day, it’s important to recognize reprisal whistleblowers sometimes face, & fight to end it. Recent example: DHS IG repeatedly impeded & delayed investigations into whistleblower retaliation—which may have set the stage for #Jan6. pogo.org/investigation/…
P.S.: if "DHS IG" sounds familiar, it’s because Inspector General Ken Cuffari’s time at DHS has been rife with misconduct, including suppressing findings of sexual misconduct & domestic violence at the department, quashing investigations involving the Secret Service... (cont⬇️)
...leading up to the 2020 election, including one into violence at Lafayette Square in June 2020, and most recently, hiding knowledge of deleted Jan. 6th texts.
➡️More Missing Text Troubles for DHS Watchdog
➡️The Looming Monkeypox Threat
➡️Pelosi’s Semiconductor Stake
➡️and much more!
Keep on reading👇
The struggle for limited resources as thousands of at-risk gay and bisexual men try to get vaccinated, tested and treated during the growing #monkeypox outbreak has exposed deep disparities in the gay community, reports @FenitN washingtonpost.com/health/2022/07…
This week brought news that federal prosecutors are probing former President Trump’s actions in trying to overturn the 2020 election. The DOJ seized phone records of Trump’s top aides washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
In a bombshell article, @hunterw spoke to organizers of the January 6 pro-Trump rallies who say they participated in "dozens" of planning meetings with at least 7 members of Congress, including 1 who discussed a possible pardon rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
60 U.S. Border Patrol agents violated agency rules by sharing violent and obscene posts on Facebook. Only 2 were fired and, as @mariasacchetti & @NickMiroff report, most are back on the job working with migrants washingtonpost.com/immigration/fa…
Today, POGO is releasing our Baker’s Dozen: 13 sets of policy recommendations for Congress and the White House. These recs range from issues we have championed since 1981, to a new and growing focus on equity and fairness in our justice system.
You can read all the details at the link here pogo.org/report/2021/02… or get the overview of each recommendation in the 🧵 below ⬇️
Promoting Accountability When Government Officials Commit Wrongdoing: there are a number of policies we must instate to hold law enforcement accountable and strengthen civil rights.
Face recognition tech is flawed and biased against people of color and women. Even if it worked as designed, it would be a nightmare. That’s why POGO joined this letter calling for a federal moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology: washingtonpost.com/technology/202…
POGO has been standing up against face recognition tech, most recently calling on CBP to halt its program using this surveillance tool: pogo.org/letter/2020/12…
Never before has the government possessed a surveillance tool this dangerous. @POTUS must honor his promise to center racial equity and put a stop to its use now.
2/ “A teaspoon of methyl parathion would kill you.”
Not far from Hawaiian beachside resorts on a windy day in July 2014, Monsanto sprayed much more than that—despite the fact that the pesticide had been banned from use since the end of 2013. bit.ly/30GANia
3/ After EPA investigators & federal prosecutors became aware of Monsanto's practice, a U.S. attorney’s office planned to charge Monsanto w/ a felony violation of the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act: bit.ly/2Hv1gaU