Defending public health and the right to public information

Louisiana Governor's Executive Order Renewing State of Emergency for Cybersecurity Incident Appears to Grant National Guard Authority to Act

Landry's March 20th renewal of former Governor's order includes new section granting authority to director of GOHSEP. However, the day the order was signed Landry placed the agency under the National Guard, gave the former director a new title, and granted a guardsman the title of acting director.

Department of Homeland Security Dismantling Civil Rights Offices as FL Representatives Introduce House Bill That Would Aid Federal Government Agenda

If successful, the bill would turn FEMA into a cabinet position under the president. An extreme restructuring of FEMA under Trump could leave civil rights protections during disasters and emergencies, at risk.

Louisiana DOGE Secret Meetings May Have Involved Plans to Cut Medicaid-Updated

Louisiana DOGE taskforce secretly met with director of Guidehouse consulting, and former Executive Director of Medicaid at LA Department of Health. LeBlanc ran a program recently audited by LA DOGE and accused of inappropriate spending. LeBlanc served as director for 4 of the 5-year audit period.

NIH Funding Policy Frequently Criticized by Republicans for "Lack of Oversight," is Based on HHS Framework Created by Trump Administration

This post is the first in a series that will cover COVID and vaccine misinformation as well as how it relates to the current fears surrounding a bird flu pandemic. This first post will focus on the numerous misunderstandings surrounding GOF research.

State Level "DOGE Inspired Task Forces" Pop Up Across U.S. Promoted by Republican Governors' Love of "Small Government"

3/24/25 Update Updating with some news about Louisiana DOGE: https://pimento-mori.ghost.io/louisiana-doge-secret-meetings-may-have-involved-plans-to-cut-medicaid-2/ I also found this Newsweek article from 2/26/25 that lists several states I was unaware of. It missed several I have listed here. Combined with my list and the Axios article from

One of the earliest attacks on DEI began at the NIH and it's still going

2/25/25 Note: I am not a journalist. I am a scientist in the United States. I have been following the chaos barreling down the NIH and federal employee pipeline for several weeks now. Although not all are federal employees, scientists around the country depend on NIH for funding

Psychological Innoculation and Astroturfing: Preparing for exploitation of U.S. secession movements

“Psychological innoculation” as a strategy against disinformation and misinformation is an important tactic to potentially add to the growing list of “ways to fight back.” Please keep in mind that the study I'm including in the references was funded by Google, but the first author (typically the individual