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The Continuing Crisis, Part VII: An Overview | Science | AAAS

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B.C. will toll U.S. trucks travelling to Alaska, Eby says

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A man in front of a Canadian Flag

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Trump Ramps Up Attacks on Law Firms With Order Targeting Perkins Coie - The New York Times

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One Agency Held Off The DOGE Invasion And Is Now Fighting Back - TPM – Talking Points Memo

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For weeks, the U.S. African Development Foundation says in a new lawsuit, it’s managed to do one thing that many federal agencies have not: beat back DOGE and other members of the Trump administration’s wrecking crew.

It came to a head on Wednesday, when DOGE officials and a Trump appointee attempted to muscle their way in to the agency’s DC headquarters, according to a complaint filed by USADF’s president on Thursday in federal court in Washington. At one point, an appointee even threatened to sue a security guard blocking his way.

So far USADF has succeeded in keeping DOGE from dismantling it.

The 26-page complaint by USADF President Ward Brehm alleges that DOGE claimed that USAID appointee Pete Marocco had been named as acting chair of the USADF board of directors – a legally baseless claim. From there, the complaint alleges, Marocco and DOGE sought to muscle their way in to USADF in various ways so as to dismantle it.

With DOGE in the process of working its way through dozens of agencies across the federal government, conducting illegal firings and unlawfully ordering money frozen, the story of USADF marks a rare example of a federal agency fighting back and, for now, holding DOGE off. It’s now asking a D.C. federal judge to order a halt to DOGE’s attempts to interfere with the agency and its effort to install Marocco as its board chairman.

“Without this Court’s immediate intervention, Defendants will continue their tactics and strongarm their way into USADF, no matter that USADF has a legally constituted Board and President,” the complaint alleges.

USADF embodies the kind of target that Trump has seized upon in his second administration. It mainly exists to invest in African economic development projects. But unlike USAID or other agencies, it has a layer of protection. As the complaint notes, USADF lacks political leadership or appointees that could squire DOGE representatives into the building.

The wrecking began on Feb. 20, according to the complaint.

A DOGE employee named Chris Young told USADF leaders that two engineers –Ethan Shaotran and Nate Cavanaugh – would be detailed to “provide software expertise to modernize architecture, system design, and improve government efficiency,” the complaint says.

The next day, a DOGE attorney named Jake Altik appeared, the complaint alleges. Altik revealed what the complaint describes as DOGE’s true aim: to “dismantle” the agency by reducing it to its “minimum function.” That would mean firing everyone except its board and president while leaving one or two grants in place funded by private partnerships.

From there, USADF leadership started to fight back, the complaint says.

It asked DOGE for an “assessment of the legal basis” of Altik’s vision for the agency and said that DOGE staffers would need security clearances to access agency data.

That set off a back-and-forth that culminated in a showdown at USADF headquarters, the complaint says.

Altik purportedly said that if the board didn’t provide waivers for security clearances, he would have the board fired, the complaint alleges. At one point, DOGE staffers allegedly approached a GOP appointee on the USADF board, incorrectly told him that everyone else had been fired, and asked him to implement their vision. He refused.

After all that, on Feb. 24, the complaint says that the Presidential Personnel Office told Brehm that he had been fired from the board. PPO told the agency days later that it had appointed Pete Marocco, by that time well-known for putting a stranglehold on USAID, as board chairman. In the meantime, the original board had named fellow board member Brehm, a George W. Bush appointee, as president of USADF. Brehm appears to have stepped down from the board to accept the position of president.

But USADF continued to fight through this week.

At a Monday emergency meeting, USADF board members determined that Marocco had been illegally appointed – he was an imposter as board chairman. The board also appointed Brehm as President, and notified Congress of the same. There’s no law that authorizes an acting chairman for USADF, they determined, and the President needs to nominate a replacement for Senate confirmation.

It all came to a head on Wednesday, when Marocco appeared at USADF headquarters with DOGE staffers.

Brehm and others denied him access. Marocco and DOGE purportedly replied with threats to call the U.S. Marshals Service or Secret Service agents to force their way in. At one point, the complaint says, the group threatened to sue a security guard.

Marocco and DOGE weren’t able to make it into the building, the complaint says. They never followed through on their threats, as of this writing. Now, it’s up to a judge.

Read the complaint here:

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Phoenix Federal Courthouse Abandoned: Update - TPM – Talking Points Memo

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Send comments and tips to talk at talkingpointsmemo dot com. To share confidential information by secure channels contact me on Signal at joshtpm dot 99 or via encrypted mail at joshtpm (at) protonmail dot com.

Earlier this afternoon I told you how the GSA staffers who run the Sandra Day O’Connor Federal Courthouse in Phoenix were abruptly fired with no warning or notification to anyone who works in the building. A bit later this afternoon I was able to speak to Debra Lucas, the District Court Executive and Clerk of the Court. To explain that job title Lucas is the senior judicial branch official at the courthouse in terms of the administration of the function of the courthouse. What Lucas told me basically squared with what sources had already told and which I shared with you in that earlier post.

They got no advance warning that this was going to happen. And they still haven’t gotten any explanation of what’s happening. “We’re still waiting for guidance,” Lucas told me. When I asked, guidance from whom? she said the GSA.

As she further explained, the building has one contract for facility maintenance and another for cleaning. And for now those people are still showing up. So for now, not a lot has changed in terms of like trash piling up or like something falling apart. It’s just that the people in charge of the building and who the contractors report to are gone. I tried to suss out, like is this sustainable? Her response was pretty much identical to what I heard from the person I spoke to in the GSA field office in Phoenix. Lucas took a moment and said, “It’s too early to say.”

They’re two and half days in.

In other words, what it comes down to is that the GSA, at DOGE’s orders, have essentially abandoned this facility. It’s a courthouse. So they’re continuing to do judge stuff. And the people who clean the toilets and maintain the AC and so forth are continuing to showed up yesterday and today because that’s what they do. But no one has any idea what’s going on and that’s really it.

I get the impression that they’re trying to stay generally quiet about this. Probably because no one wants to antagonize DOGE but also because they genuinely have no idea what’s going on. I mean, think how bizarre this is. Courthouses aren’t really a very kinetic kind of real estate space. The government sets them up and that’s kind of it. And here you have a case where you work in this building and suddenly the people who are the closest analogue to the landlord or the management company just disappeared. That’s weird!

I suspect it’s pretty outside the experience of all these people.

My strong sense, based both on logic and hunches but also reporting I’m doing, is that stuff like this is happening all across the country right now. But we’re simply not hearing about because it’s happening so quickly and in so many places at once.

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Powerful Speeches From Trans Dems Flip 29 Republicans, Anti-Trans Bills Die In Montana

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Erin In The Morning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

Something remarkable happened in Montana today. As has become routine, anti-trans bills were up for debate—the state has spent more than half of its legislative days this session pushing such bills through committees and the House floor, with Republicans largely voting in lockstep. But something changed.

A week ago, transgender Representative Zooey Zephyr delivered a powerful speech against a bill that would create a separate indecent exposure law for transgender people. Since then, momentum on the House floor slowed. Today, two of the most extreme bills targeting the transgender community came up for a vote. Transgender Representatives Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell gave impassioned speeches—this time, they broke through. In a stunning turn, 29 Republicans defected, killing both bills. One Republican even took the floor to deliver a scathing rebuke of the bill’s sponsor.

The first bill to reach the House floor was HB 675, a measure that would ban drag performances and Pride parades in Montana. A previous drag ban had already been struck down by the courts after it was enforced against a transgender woman—who was not a drag artist—to prevent her from speaking about public history at a library. In response, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Caleb Hinkle, introduced HB 675 to circumvent that ruling.

Rather than relying on state enforcement, this bill would grant individuals the private right to sue if a public drag performance took place, making it more difficult to challenge in court. During committee hearings, Hinkle went even further, calling being transgender "a fetish" and arguing that the law was necessary to prevent trans people from dancing in public.

And that’s when transgender Representative Zooey Zephyr took to the floor.

"Here I am again to rise on another bill targeting the LGBTQ+ community," she said, exasperated. "At its very core, drag is art. It is very beautiful art. It has a deep history in this country, and it is important to my community. You know, if you are a woman in this body wearing a suit today, you are in some way challenging gender norms that existed long ago… There were three-article-of-clothing laws 50 years ago that said if you wore three articles of clothing that were indicative of the opposite gender, they could stop you, arrest you… it was those laws that led to the police raiding an LGBTQ+ bar that led to the Stonewall riots, one of the most important civil rights moments in my community’s history," she began.

“When the sponsor closed on this bill, he said, this bill is needed… and I quote his words… ‘because transgenderism is a fetish based on crossdressing.’ And I am here to stand before the body and say that my life is not a fetish. My existence is not a fetish. I was proud within a month ago to have my son up in the gallery here. Many of you on the other side met him. When I go to walk him to school, that’s not a lascivious display. That is not a fetish. That is my family. This is what these bills are trying to come after… not obscene shows in front of children, we have the Miller test for that, we have laws for that. This is a way to target the trans community, and that is in my opinion, and in the speaker’s own words.”

Then something even more remarkable happened: A Republican, Representative Sherry Essman, rose to defend Rep. Zephyr and chastised the bill’s sponsor. “I’m speaking as a parent and a grandmother. And I’m very emotional because I know the representative in seat 20 is also a parent. No matter what you think of that, she is doing her best to raise a child. I did my best to raise my children as I saw fit, and I’m taking it for granted that my children are going to raise my grandchildren as they see fit,” she began.

“Everybody in here talks about how important parental rights are. I want to tell you, in addition to parental rights, parental responsibility is also important. And if you can’t trust a decent parent to decide where and when their kids should see what, then we have a bigger problem,” she turned to parental rights and spoke about how people who claim those rights should vote against the bill.

And then, she closed by chastising the bill’s sponsor for bringing the bill, “Trust the parents to do what’s right, and stop these crazy bills that are a waste of time. They’re a waste of energy. We should be working on property tax relief and not doing this sort of business on the floor of this house and having to even talk about this.”

Following the speeches, 13 Republicans, the most of any anti-trans bill this cycle, flipped and voted against the bill. See it as it happened here:

Erin In The Morning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

Were this all that happened, it would have been remarkable enough—such aisle-crossing has become rare in modern politics, and on transgender issues, it is almost unheard of. But Representative Zephyr is not the only transgender lawmaker in Montana. Representative SJ Howell, a powerhouse in their own right, took the floor when an even more extreme bill followed immediately afterwards—HB754, a measure that would remove transgender children from their parents. They had a powerful speech to deliver as well.

Representative Howell opened, "I stand to oppose this bill… When a state intervenes to remove a child from their family, that is one of the most serious and weighty responsibilities that the state has. That is not something to be taken lightly. Every time a child is removed from their family, it’s a tragedy. Sometimes a necessary tragedy, but a tragedy nonetheless. This bill does not come close to the seriousness with which those decisions should be contemplated."

They pointed directly to the bill’s language: "On page 1, line 19, any child protective service specialist, peace officer, or county attorney who has reason to believe any child is in immediate danger or harm may immediately remove the child. What we are adding… a child transitioning gender with the support of a parent or guardian is considered in immediate or apparent danger or harm."

Howell then turned to the bill’s vagueness and the dangers it posed to transgender children as well as any child who defies gender norms. "Transitioning gender is not defined in this bill… so what does that mean? Maybe it means, as the sponsor said, surgery or medical treatment. Maybe it means therapy, mental healthcare. Maybe it means a kid who gets a haircut and a new set of clothes. Maybe a name change… a legal name change, or someone who wants to try out a different name… a strict reading of this bill could include all of that."

They urged lawmakers to consider the real consequences. "Put yourself in the shoes of a CPS worker who is confronted with a young person, 15 years old maybe, who is happy… healthy… living in a stable home with loving parents, who is supported and has their needs met? And they are supposed to remove that child from their home and put them in the care of the state? We should absolutely not be doing that."

Then, the bill went to a vote. This time, the Montana Republican Party fully fractured—29 Republicans crossed the aisle to defeat it.

Watch it as it happened here:

Following the vote, Representative Zephyr took to social media to discuss the implications. “These kind of votes are born out of transgender representation in government,” she posted on her bluesky account. “Howell & I have built solid relationships with Republicans and those relationships change hearts, minds, and (eventually) votes. It is painful, grueling work. But it makes a difference.”

At a time when anti-trans bills are sailing through red-state legislatures, many are left wondering how they can be stopped. Some Democrats, like Gavin Newsom, have chosen appeasement—standing alongside anti-trans hate leaders like Charlie Kirk instead of standing up for transgender people. But Representatives Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell offer a different path. As transgender lawmakers in a Republican-dominated government, they have shown that representation, relationships, and the power of speaking truth in hostile spaces can move hearts and minds. Their success is a reminder that even in the most challenging environments, refusing to back down can make a difference.

Erin In The Morning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

Editor’s Note: The writer of this article is happily married to Representative Zooey Zephyr. While I am mindful of disclosing personal relationships in my reporting as a transgender journalist, I also recognize the importance of covering major moments like today’s events in Montana, and so I chose to report on this story with this disclosure. My goal remains delivering critical LGBTQ+ news to my readers with the integrity and urgency it deserves.

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Who is the DOGE and X Technician Branden Spikes? – Krebs on Security

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At 49, Branden Spikes isn’t just one of the oldest technologists who has been involved in Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). As the current director of information technology at X/Twitter and an early hire at PayPal, Zip2, Tesla and SpaceX, Spikes is also among Musk’s most loyal employees. Here’s a closer look at this trusted Musk lieutenant, whose Russian ex-wife was once married to Elon’s cousin.

The profile of Branden Spikes on X.

When President Trump took office again in January, he put the world’s richest man — Elon Musk — in charge of the U.S. Digital Service, and renamed the organization as DOGE. The group is reportedly staffed by at least 50 technologists, many of whom have ties to Musk’s companies.

DOGE has been enabling the president’s ongoing mass layoffs and firings of federal workers, largely by seizing control over computer systems and government data for a multitude of federal agencies, including the Social Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Treasury Department.

It is difficult to find another person connected to DOGE who has stronger ties to Musk than Branden Spikes. A native of California, Spikes initially teamed up with Musk in 1997 as a lead systems engineer for the software company Zip2, the first major venture for Musk. In 1999, Spikes was hired as director of IT at PayPal, and in 2002 he became just the fourth person hired at SpaceX.

In 2012, Spikes launched Spikes Security, a software product that sought to create a compartmentalized or “sandboxed” web browser that could insulate the user from malware attacks. A review of <a href="http://spikes.com" rel="nofollow">spikes.com</a> in the Wayback Machine shows that as far back as 1998, Musk could be seen joining Spikes for team matches in the online games Quake and Quake II. In 2016, Spikes Security was merged with another security suite called Aurionpro, with the combined company renamed Cyberinc.

A snapshot of <a href="http://spikes.com" rel="nofollow">spikes.com</a> from 1998 shows Elon Musk’s profile in Spike’s clan for the games Quake and Quake II.

Spikes’s LinkedIn profile says he was appointed head of IT at X in February 2025. And although his name shows up on none of the lists of DOGE employees circulated by various media outlets, multiple sources told KrebsOnSecurity that Spikes was working with DOGE and operates within Musk’s inner circle of trust.

In a conversation with KrebsOnSecurity, Spikes said he is dedicated to his country and to saving it from what he sees as certain ruin.

“Myself, I was raised by a southern conservative family in California and I strongly believe in America and her future,” Spikes said. “This is why I volunteered for two months in DC recently to help DOGE save us from certain bankruptcy.”

Spikes told KrebsOnSecurity that he recently decided to head back home and focus on his job as director of IT at X.

“I loved it, but ultimately I did not want to leave my hometown and family back in California,” Spikes said of his tenure at DOGE. “After a couple of months it became clear that to continue helping I would need to move to DC and commit a lot more time, so I politely bowed out.”

Prior to founding Spikes Security, Branden Spikes was married to a native Russian woman named Natalia whom he’d met at a destination wedding in South America in 2003.

Branden and Natalia’s names are both on the registration records for the domain name orangetearoom[.]com. This domain, which <a href="http://DomainTools.com" rel="nofollow">DomainTools.com</a> says was originally registered by Branden in 2009, is the home of a tax-exempt charity in Los Angeles called the California Russian Association.

Here is a photo from a 2011 event organized by the California Russian Association, showing Branden and Natalia at one of its “White Nights” charity fundraisers:

Branden and Natalia Spikes, on left, in 2011. The man on the far right is Ivan Y. Podvalov, a board member of the Kremlin-aligned Congress of Russian Americans (CRA). The man in the center is Feodor Yakimoff, director of operations at the Transib Global Sourcing Group, and chairman of the Russian Imperial Charity Balls, which works in concert with the Russian Heritage Foundation.

In 2011, the Spikes couple got divorced, and Natalia changed her last name to Haldeman. That is not her maiden name, which appears to be “Libina.” Rather, Natalia acquired the surname Haldeman in 1998, when she married Elon Musk’s cousin.

Reeve Haldeman is the son of Scott Haldeman, who is the brother of Elon Musk’s mother, Maye Musk. Divorce records show Reeve and Natalia officially terminated their marriage in 2007. Reeve Haldeman did not respond to a request for comment.

A review of other domain names connected to Natalia Haldeman’s email address show she has registered more than a dozen domains over the years that are tied to the California Russian Association, and an apparently related entity called the Russian Heritage Foundation, Inc.:

<a href="http://russianamericans.org" rel="nofollow">russianamericans.org</a> <a href="http://russianamericanstoday.com" rel="nofollow">russianamericanstoday.com</a> <a href="http://russianamericanstoday.org" rel="nofollow">russianamericanstoday.org</a> <a href="http://russiancalifornia.org" rel="nofollow">russiancalifornia.org</a> <a href="http://russianheritagefoundation.com" rel="nofollow">russianheritagefoundation.com</a> <a href="http://russianheritagefoundation.org" rel="nofollow">russianheritagefoundation.org</a> <a href="http://russianwhitenights.com" rel="nofollow">russianwhitenights.com</a> <a href="http://russianwhitenights.org" rel="nofollow">russianwhitenights.org</a> <a href="http://theforafoundation.org" rel="nofollow">theforafoundation.org</a> <a href="http://thegoldentearoom.com" rel="nofollow">thegoldentearoom.com</a> <a href="http://therussianheritagefoundation.org" rel="nofollow">therussianheritagefoundation.org</a>

<a href="http://tsarinahome.com" rel="nofollow">tsarinahome.com</a>

Ms. Haldeman did not respond to requests for comment. Her name and contact information appears in the registration records for these domains dating back to 2010, and a document published by ProPublica show that by 2016 Natalia Haldeman was appointed CEO of the California Russian Foundation.

The domain name that bears both Branden’s and Natalia’s names — <a href="http://orangeteamroom.com" rel="nofollow">orangeteamroom.com</a> — features photos of Ms. Haldeman at fundraising events for the Russian foundation through 2014. Additional photos of her and many of the same people can be seen through 2023 at another domain she registered in 2010 — <a href="http://russianheritagefoundation.com" rel="nofollow">russianheritagefoundation.com</a>.

A photo from Natalia Haldeman’s Facebook page shows her mother (left) pictured with Maye Musk, Elon Musk’s mother, in 2022.

The photo of Branden and Natalia above is from one such event in 2011 (tied to <a href="http://russianwhitenights.org" rel="nofollow">russianwhitenights.org</a>, another Haldeman domain). The person on the right in that image — Ivan Y. Podvalov — appears in many fundraising event photos published by the foundation over the past decade. Podvalov is a board member of the Congress of Russian Americans (CRA), a nonprofit group that is known for vehemently opposing U.S. financial and legal sanctions against Russia.

Writing for The Insider in 2022, journalist Diana Fishman described how the CRA has engaged in outright political lobbying, noting that the organization in June 2014 sent a letter to President Obama and the secretary of the United Nations, calling for an end to the “large-scale US intervention in Ukraine and the campaign to isolate Russia.”

“The US military contingents must be withdrawn immediately from the Eastern European region, and NATO’s enlargement efforts and provocative actions against Russia must cease,” the message read.

The Insider said the CRA director sent another two letters, this time to President Donald Trump, in 2017 and 2018.

“One was a request not to sign a law expanding sanctions against Russia,” Fishman wrote. “The other regretted the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats from the United States and urged not to jump to conclusions on Moscow’s involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal.”

The nonprofit tracking website <a href="http://CauseIQ.com" rel="nofollow">CauseIQ.com</a> reports that The Russian Heritage Foundation, Inc. is now known as Constellation of Humanity.

The Russian Heritage Foundation and the California Russian Association both promote the interests of the Russian Orthodox Church. This page indexed by <a href="http://Archive.org" rel="nofollow">Archive.org</a> from <a href="http://russiancalifornia.org" rel="nofollow">russiancalifornia.org</a> shows The California Russian Foundation organized a community effort to establish an Orthodox church in Orange County, Calif.

A press release from the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) shows that in 2021 the Russian Heritage Foundation donated money to organize a conference for the Russian Orthodox Church in Serbia.

A review of the “Partners” listed on the Spikes’ jointly registered domain — <a href="http://orangetearoom.com" rel="nofollow">orangetearoom.com</a> — shows the organization worked with a marketing company called Russian American Media. Reporting by KrebsOnSecurity last year showed that Russian American Media also partners with the problematic people-search service Radaris, which was formed by two native Russian brothers in Massachusetts who have built a fleet of consumer data brokers and Russian affiliate programs.

When asked about his ex-wife’s history, Spikes said she has a good heart and bears no ill-will toward anyone.

“I attended several of Natalia’s social events over the years we were together and can assure you that she’s got the best intentions with those,” Spikes told KrebsOnSecurity. “There’s no funny business going on. It is just a way for those friendly immigrants to find resources amongst each other to help get settled in and chase the American dream. I mean, they’re not unlike the immigrants from other countries who come to America and try to find each other and help each other find others who speak the language and share in the building of their businesses here in America.”

Spikes said his own family roots go back deeply into American history, sharing that his 6th great grandfather was Alexander Hamilton on his mom’s side, and Jessie James on his dad’s side.

“My family roots are about as American as you can get,” he said. “I’ve also been entrusted with building and safeguarding Elon’s companies since 1999 and have a keen eye (as you do) for bad actors, so have enough perspective to tell you that Natalia has no bad blood and that she loves America.”

Of course, this perspective comes from someone who has the utmost regard for the interests of the “special government employee” Mr. Musk, who has been bragging about tossing entire federal agencies into the “wood chipper,” and who recently wielded an actual chainsaw on stage while referring to it as the “chainsaw for bureaucracy.”

“Elon’s intentions are good and you can trust him,” Spikes assured.

A special note of thanks for research assistance goes to Jacqueline Sweet, an independent investigative journalist whose work has been published in The Guardian, Rolling Stone, POLITICO and The Intercept.

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