• The administration pulled $400m from Columbia University, citing failure to stop antisemitism on campus.
• The US Firefighting Academy has halted its free training classes for review.
• House Republicans proposed a six month budget plan which would move some power to set spending away from appropriations committee and hand it to the executive branch.
• ICE agents have again attempted to arrest a non-white US citizen with valid ID, this time at gunpoint.
• The Justice Department has started an antitrust investigation into egg pricing.
• The Secret Service shot but did not kill an armed man near the White House after he pulled a firearm. He may have been in a mental health crisis.
• Most HHS employees were offered $25k contract buyouts.
• Asked about recession risks, Trump stated it will "take a little time" to see the benefits of tariffs.
• A Gallup poll found that 12% of all US adults were unable to afford medical care last year and had to go into debt to receive it.
• The WHO has warned that following the US foreign aid cuts, it is likely that tuberculosis will now surge worldwide. The US was providing 25% of the tuberculosis funding used by foreign nations.
• The Supreme Court will take up a conversion therapy case.
• The DHS is administering lie detector tests to identify leaks damaging ICE operations.
• Tesla stock dropped by 12% in a single day. (Unfortunately, if you have a 401k, that's falling, too).
• Trump signed an order for a strategic bitcoin reserve established to hold forfeitures.
• People are boycotting Amazon this week and Target until 4/17 to protest anti-DEI moves.
• The NWS has had to delay some weather balloon launches due to staffing shortfalls.
• The CBP App, used to manage immigration appointments, has been turned into a self-deportation tool.
• Intelligence sharing with Ukraine is back on.
• Public Service student loan forgiveness may be cut for groups supporting specific progressive causes.
• Dept of Agriculture has disbanded two food safety advisory committees.
• Trump officially notified Canada he wants to renegotiate the border.
• 83% of USAID contracts will be cut.#QuietNews

• Trump pushed tariffs on most items for Mexico and Canada back another month, but Canada proceeded with retaliatory tariffs and an electricity price hike anyway.
• A judge gave the administration only four days to pay $2b owed to USAID contractors after the Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal.
• Apparently it's the cuts at the VA that are finally enough to make Republicans in Congress big mad, and they have started pushing back and haranguing the white house with a flood of calls and met with Musk.
• A judge reinstated a NLRB member on the grounds that her firing was illegal.
• Trump plans to revoke the temporary legal status of ~240,000 Ukrainian refugees and expedite deportations beginning in April.
• A judge blocked the NIH indirect cost reimbursement cap.
• The state department plans to use AI assisted review of social media sites to identify and revoke student visas for those identified as "pro-Hamas".

#QuietNews is my daily, intentionally calm US news roundup meant to inform those who need news-reading to have minimal impact on health. Please only reply in kind.

• An injunction blocked the enforcement of the ban on gender-affirming care for minors nationwide.
• The US paused all military aid to Ukraine and has cut off intelligence sharing.
• Republican members of Congress were advised by their committee to stop holding in-person town hall events due to widespread protest.
• The Supreme Court rejected Trump's request to keep billions in foreign aid frozen, allowing lower courts to compel its release.
• Countries under new tariffs have announced a variety of retaliatory tariffs, and the province of Ontario is threatening to cut electricity to three US states still facing snowstorms.
• Auto manufacturers have been given a month reprieve from tariffs on imports.
• Measles continues to spread. (Make sure you've had your vaccines!)
• The Merit Systems Protection Board, a panel that protects federal merit systems against political abuse, restored the jobs of more than 5000 USDA employees until mid-April.
• A judge also ruled the firing of the MSPB was illegal. This was a final ruling, not a temporary action, but may still be appealed to the Supreme Court.
• The FBI official who refused to share Jan 6 case agent names with the administration was pushed into retirement.
• Trump threatened federal funding cutoffs for schools harboring "illegal protests" and threatened protesters with deportation, permanent expulsion or arrest. He has no power over expulsion and this isn't tied to any pending order or proclamation.
• Putin has agreed to broker negotiations between the US and Iran about their nuclear program.
• Use of military aircraft for deportation flights has ceased due to sheer expense (and refusal by some nations including Mexico to allow military planes to land or use their airspace for this purpose).

#QuietNews is my daily, intentionally calm US news roundup meant to inform those who need news-reading to have minimal impact on health. Please only reply in kind.

• The Treasury Department will not enforce the Corporate Transparency Act, an anti-money laundering law requiring business entities to disclose their real beneficial owners. It intends to narrow the scope to foreign reporting companies only, reducing the burden on small entities.
• The US has suspended all military aid to Ukraine.
• Russia issued a statement praising the new US foreign policy decisions.
• Markets are falling as Trump readies tariffs and an early recession indicator has begun to flash, with a projected economic decline in the first quarter.
• The Senate failed to push through a bill that would have codified the ban on transgender sports participation under Title IX.
• As the Carolinas battle wildfires, large storms loom in the south and the heartland with a reduced forecaster workforce now tracking them.
• USAID funding has been reinstated for MANA nutrition after Elon Musk responded to CNN's reporting on the plant. MANA makes a therapeutic food product the US distributes to child victims of wasting disease, providing shelf-stable calories in the form of a heavily enriched peanut butter paste of the type distributed by UNICEF. A similar plant, Edesia, says 85% of its business comes from USAID, and together the plants feed millions of children.

#QuietNews is my daily, intentionally calm US news roundup meant to inform those who need news-reading to have minimal impact on health. Please only reply in kind.

• The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to NY's $15 broadband law, requiring affordable high-speed internet access for low-income residents. The success of this law has led to similar laws in other states.
• The secretary of Defense has directed U.S. Cyber Command to pause offensive operations and planning against Russia.
• Elon Musk has begun referring to Social Security as a ponzi scheme.
• Warren Buffett referred to tariffs as "an act of war, to some degree," in a rare public comment which may reflect a shift in large investor sentiment.
• Trump listed Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Cardano as cryptocurrencies likely to form the heart of a US cryptocurrency reserve.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander has landed on the moon near Mons Latreille for a two week visit, the first by a private venture. (Image by Firefly Aerospace).

#QuietNews is my daily, intentionally calm US news roundup meant to inform those who need news-reading to have minimal impact on health. Please only reply in kind.