The Paper Trail: November 1, 2024

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Editor’s Note

There will be no Paper Trail on Tuesday, November 5. Get out and VOTE!

The Paper Trail

Top stories for November 1, 2024

Election officials are outmatched by Elon Musk’s misinformation machine: Elon Musk’s misinformation megaphone has created a huge problem for election officials in key battleground states who say they’re struggling to combat the wave of falsehoods coming from Musk on his X platform. (Zachary Cohen, Sean Lyngaas, and Sara Murray, CNN)

Employee group urges centralized response to increase in doxxing and threats against federal workers: The Gender Equality Network, a group representing nearly 2,000 Justice Department employees, said they’ve seen an uptick in both doxxing and online threats against employees as federal law enforcement pursues cases in relation to the January 6 insurrection. According to the group, “women have been targeted disproportionately—as have members of the LGBTQI+ community, people of color, and members of other historically marginalized groups” (Erich Wagner, Government Executive)

Trump family members and Biden aides among China hack targets: Members of Donald Trump’s family and Biden administration officials were among those targeted by Salt Typhoon, a group of Chinese government-linked hackers who broke into telecommunications company systems. (Devlin Barrett, Ben Protess, and Maggie Haberman, New York Times)

America’s top archivist puts a rosy spin on U.S. history — pruning the thorny parts: U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan and her top advisers ordered the removal of references to such historical events as the government’s displacement of indigenous tribes and the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II from planned exhibits at the National Archives Museum. They also ordered the removal of images of Martin Luther King Jr., labor-union pioneer Dolores Huerta, and Minnie Spotted-Wolf, the first Native American woman to join the Marines. (Andrew Restuccia and Rebecca Ballhaus, Wall Street Journal)

After the storms, the toxic secrets left behind: A tangled web of federal disclosure laws, regulatory holes, and pressure from lobbyists obscure the toxic fallout from disasters like Hurricane Helene. (Helen Santoro, The Lever)

How the revolving door at FAA spins Boeing’s way: Federal law requires former FAA employees to wait two years before they can represent companies such as Boeing in interactions with the government, but critics say this “cooling-off period” isn’t enough to prevent undue industry pressure on the agency. (Patrick Malone, Seattle Times)

Israel-Hamas War

U.S. inundated with claims that American arms killed Gaza civilians: The State Department has received nearly 500 reports alleging that Israel used U.S.-supplied weapons for attacks that caused unnecessary harm to civilians in the Gaza Strip, but it has failed to comply with its own policies requiring swift investigations of such claims. (Abigail Hauslohner and Michael Birnbaum, Washington Post)

Insurrection

“January 6th is going to be pretty fun”: How MAGA activists are preparing to undermine the election if Trump loses: The “Stop the Steal” movement has reemerged in force, with some of the same activists who tried to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 loss outlining a step-by-step guide to undermine the results if he falls short again. (Curt Devine, Casey Tolan, and Donie O’Sullivan, CNN)

An insurrectionist once helped lead this police department. Insiders speak out about its culture of white supremacy: Federal prosecutors have indicted at least 35 current or former law enforcement officers for their role in the insurrection. Among them is Alan Hostetter, a former California police chief who spent 22 years at the Fontana Police Department, which has been accused of racism. (Alice Speri and Stuart Harmon, The Intercept)

Why a potential Trump win, Jan. 6 pardons have one family fearing for their lives: While some fear democracy is at risk in this election, Tasha Adams fears her life and the lives of her children will be in danger if Donald Trump wins and follows through on his promise to pardon the January 6 insurrectionists, including Adams’ ex-husband, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes. (Will Carless, USA Today)

Dobbs Aftermath

A Texas woman died after the hospital said it would be a “crime” to intervene in her miscarriage: Josseli Barnica is one of at least two Texas women who died after doctors delayed treating their miscarriages, which fall into a gray area under the state’s strict abortion ban. (Cassandra Jaramillo and Kavitha Surana, ProPublica)

Police Misconduct

Justice Department has yet to reach accords in police misconduct cases: The DOJ has opened 12 investigations into possible civil rights abuses by state and local police departments since President Biden took office, but it hasn't secured a binding settlement to implement reforms in any of them. (Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward, Reuters)

Prison work assignments used to lure and rape female inmates. Guards sometimes walk free: Though female prisoners long have been victims of sexual violence, the number of reports against correctional staff has exploded nationwide in recent years. Many complaints follow a similar pattern: Accusers are retaliated against, while those accused face little or no punishment. (Margie Mason and Robin McDowell, Associated Press)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Bathroom boondoggle: Air Force paid 80 times going rate for soap dispenser: The Air Force paid 80 times the commercial rate for soap dispensers for its C-17 Globemaster cargo planes. In all, the Air Force overpaid nearly $1 million for C-17 spare parts, partly because it failed to review invoices to determine fair and reasonable prices before payment. (Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today)

Pentagon runs low on air-defense missiles as demand surges: The Navy often launches two interceptors for every one missile when responding to attacks, essentially as an insurance policy to ensure the target is hit. A single standard missile can cost millions of dollars, making it an expensive way to defend against Iranian-made weapons, which cost much less. (Nancy A. Youssef and Gordon Lubold, Wall Street Journal)

Heat problems could stop the F-35 fighter cold: In years ahead, the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and 18 allies and partner nations are counting on the F-35 to shoulder many roles. But these advanced missions are in danger unless the F-35 Joint Program Office figures out a fast fix for the F-35 cooling system. (Rebecca Grant, The National Interest)

🔎 See Also: Marine Corps blames pilot error for crash of malfunctioning F-35 in South Carolina forest (Drew F. Lawrence and Thomas Novelly, MIlitary.com)

Business and Finance

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, already a leader in satellites, gets into the spy game: SpaceX is poised to capitalize on the Pentagon and spy agencies’ plan to develop new low-earth-orbit satellites, raising concerns inside the government about the company’s growing dominance in the sector and Elon Musk’s extensive foreign business operations. (Eric Lipton, New York Times)

Justice Dept. sues Rocket Mortgage for appraisal discrimination: The home appraisal industry has faced a firestorm of criticism in recent years. Nearly 95% of home appraisers are white, and dozens of Black homeowners have alleged discrimination in their home valuations. (Debra Kamin, New York Times)

Tech

Meta discloses federal probe into its use of financial data for ads: The CFPB is concerned that tech giants possess troves of customer data and could solidify their dominance if they gained greater insight into users’ purchasing and spending habits. (Naomi Nix and Tony Romm, Washington Post)

Consumer group says more telephone companies should protect consumers from robocalls: Three years after laws went into effect to protect consumers from robocalls and robotexts, a public interest advocacy group found less than half of phone companies are in compliance. (Betty Lin-Fisher, USA Today)

Health Care

A child needed antivenom for a snakebite. It cost more than $200,000: Even though venomous snakes bite up to 8,000 people in the U.S. each year, antivenom can be prohibitively expensive. Not all emergency rooms keep antivenom in stock, which can add big ambulance bills to already expensive care. (Jackie Fortiér, Washington Post)

ICYMI

Project 2025:

→ Schedule F: How a more partisan workforce could compromise veteran services

Immigration and Border Security:

→ As smuggling rings made billions from migrants, the U.S. was sidelined

Other News:

→ Divided Supreme Court allows Virginia to purge suspected non-citizens from voter rolls

→ Former Trump attorney, House impeachment co-counsel team up to try to bolster elections

→ New bill would levy penalties on feds “impeding” presidential directives and require new training

→ House COVID panel refers Andrew Cuomo for potential prosecution

→ Gun death rates in some U.S. states comparable to conflict zones, study finds

Because It’s Friday

McDonald’s may finally have a fix for its broken ice cream machine epidemic: Thanks to the U.S. Copyright Office, the often-broken McDonald's ice cream machine could soon become a thing of the past. (Joseph Lamour, TODAY.com)