Kennedy Promised ‘Radical Transparency’ and ‘Gold-Standard Science.’ Trump’s Vaccine Order Promotes Neither.
RFK Jr. spent his first months at HHS promising two things: radical transparency and gold-standard science. KFF Health News’ latest reporting checks that promise against the executive order President Trump signed last week — which moves to shrink the childhood vaccine schedule, break up the MMR shot, and carve out broad new religious exemptions — and finds the process behind it met neither bar.
Read the full story →New DOJ Guidance Could Give States Cover To Cut Disability Services
The Justice Department just told states they aren’t obligated to help people with disabilities live at home instead of in institutions. It lands as Medicaid funding is already being cut, and disability advocates are calling it a one-two punch on independent living.
Read more →Personal Bankruptcy Filings Are Soaring in 2026, Signaling Growing Economic Distress
More than 500,000 Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2025 — nearly 50% more than in 2022 — and filings were still climbing 12% year-over-year as of June. A business school researcher who studied the numbers (and once lived them) breaks down what’s driving the surge.
Read more →Is It Illegal for the President To Spend ‘Patriotic’ Donations on a White House Ballroom — or Anything Else?
Trump’s roughly $400 million White House ballroom is being partly funded by private donations, which the administration argues means it doesn’t need Congress’s sign-off. A federal appeals court just disagreed — a law professor walks through the surprisingly murky rules on what the government can accept.
Read more →- – Darline Graham’s inherited Senate seat revives the ‘widow’s mandate’ — with a sibling twist this time, not a spouse.
- – You want to join a clinical trial. Here’s what to know about the hurdles — eligibility, logistics, and the questions to ask first.
- – Drive for nuclear power boosts uranium industry — and reopens tribal health concerns across the Southwest.
- – Antarctic krill fishing is now concentrated exactly where conservation rules tried to prevent — a loophole years in the making.
- – Using ‘thunderquakes’ to X-ray Earth — a new study turns lightning-triggered tremors into an urban seismology tool.
- – More protein in your breakfast won’t give you more muscle without the work — a biologist separates the science from the marketing.
 Health & Politics Kennedy Promised Transparency, Vaccine Order Delivers Neither |  Health & Politics New DOJ Guidance Could Cut Disability Services |  Economy Bankruptcy Filings Soar in 2026 |
 Politics & Law Can Trump Spend Donations on a Ballroom? |  Politics Graham’s Senate Seat & the ‘Widow’s Mandate’ |  Science Thunderquakes: X-Raying Earth |
 Environment Antarctic Krill Fishing Loophole |  Health Joining a Clinical Trial: The Hurdles |  Environment & Health Nuclear Power Drive Boosts Uranium, Tribal Concerns |
 The Courage to Be Disliked |  Everyday Hallelujah |  The Butcher Legacy |
 What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking |  1929 |  Regime Change |
 The Calamity Club |  Triage |  Kin |
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