Saturday Covfefe: Wait, They Can Do That?

Secret government gigs, CDC déjà vu, and the feds want your REI shopping history.

Good morning.☕️

The headlines were loud this week. Some of the most important stories weren’t.

Pour the coffee. Let’s get into it.

1. Welcome to Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon

Here’s a story that gets more interesting when you put a few pieces together.

The Pentagon quietly brought conservative military influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers into government jobs. Some continued praising Pete Hegseth, attacking his critics and weighing in on Pentagon policy, without telling their audiences they were also working for the Pentagon. Meanwhile, three Stars and Stripes employees are being fired after two publicly defended the newspaper’s editorial independence and the third refused to fire them. On Friday, a federal judge declined to block their terminations while their lawsuit proceeds.

So friendly influencers get quietly brought inside. Journalists defending their independence get shown the door. Got it.

And here’s one more wrinkle: NBC reported last week that Hegseth and his wife have privately discussed a possible 2028 presidential run. Hegseth says that’s "100% false." Maybe he never runs. However, a Defense secretary with possible political ambitions overseeing a Pentagon that’s quietly employing sympathetic influencers while exerting greater control over an independent military newspaper?

That’s worth paying attention to.

🥸 Pentagon Secretly Hires Military Influencers (WaPo)

2. The CDC Director Is Caving, Again

I’ve seen this movie before…from inside the White House.

In 2020, I watched Trump and his team pressure the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) when its science or public-health guidance became politically inconvenient. It was dangerous then. Watching it happen again is even more alarming.

Which brings me to what’s happening at the CDC right now.

CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz ordered the agency not to include two measles-associated deaths reported by Pennsylvania in its national tally while it conducts another review. Pennsylvania says it provided the required information, and former CDC officials say second-guessing a state’s determination this way is highly unusual.

And as of Friday night, nothing has changed. The CDC updated its national measles tracker Friday and again left out Pennsylvania's two reported deaths, putting an asterisk where the state's death count would otherwise appear.

Remember the concerns about Schwartz during her confirmation? Senators from both parties pressed her on whether she would stand up to RFK Jr. and Trump if politics collided with science. She promised she would "never compromise on the science." Well, here’s her first major test…

When politics starts influencing how the CDC counts deaths or communicates risk, we lose something essential: trust in the information meant to keep us safe. I watched what happens when politics bullies science into submission. We should not have to learn that lesson twice.

🦠 CDC Delays Counting Measles Deaths (CNN)

3. DHS Goes Fishing

Apparently investigating your social media posts wasn’t enough.

The Trump administration is using an obscure government tool to obtain private information about journalists, nonprofits and unions, without first getting a judge’s approval. Minneapolis journalist Georgia Fort learned the government had obtained six months of her phone records without notifying her.

It turns out your shopping history isn’t off limits either. In a separate anti-ICE investigation, DHS Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) subpoenaed REI for information on anyone in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area who bought a particular dark-green beanie over roughly two years. WIRED reports investigators issued 92 subpoenas to companies ranging from telecoms and social-media platforms to airlines.

Yes. The federal government wanted to know who bought a green beanie at REI.

I’ve worked at DHS. Investigators sometimes need access to records when pursuing actual threats, but that’s why we have rules, oversight, and courts. A few weeks ago, I told you about DHS building dossiers on protesters.

This week, it’s journalists’ phone records and REI shopping histories.

See the pattern yet?

📱 DHS Is Using an Obscure Law to Secretly Snoop (The Guardian)

4. About Those Forever Chemicals in Your Water...

You know those “forever chemicals” we keep discovering in our water, soil, and food? We seem to be taking the “forever” part a little too literally.

The EPA developed a first-of-its-kind national survey to figure out which industries are sending Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) into wastewater treatment plants, information that could help regulators trace the biggest sources and eventually limit the pollution. It was sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget for approval in October 2024. It’s still sitting there. Nearly two years later! (For context, a former OMB official told the Associated Press that these reviews typically take about 60 days.)

PFAS have been linked to certain cancers, developmental problems in children, reduced vaccine response, and other health problems. Wastewater plants generally aren’t equipped to remove them, meaning the chemicals can wind up back in rivers and in treated sewage sludge spread on farm fields as fertilizer.

Here’s where this gets particularly absurd: the Trump administration criticized an EPA assessment of PFAS-contaminated farm sludge in part because there wasn’t enough national data. The survey designed to collect that data? That’s the one sitting at the White House awaiting approval.

The administration says it’s committed to protecting Americans from PFAS and has kept some Biden-era drinking-water limits. But if you actually want to stop these chemicals from getting into our water and food, knowing who is dumping them in the first place is a good place to start.

Call me crazy.

☣️ PFAS Study Stalled at White House (AP)

5. Maybe Check That Barcode

Here’s something I want you to know.

While diarrhea jokes have gotten some laughs lately, here’s the less funny part: our food-safety system has some serious holes.

There were 320 food recalls last year, up from 296 in 2024. But the number that caught my attention was this: regulators investigated 28 foodborne illness outbreaks, and 17 never resulted in an announced recall for a specific brand. In 13 cases, investigators didn’t even identify what type of food caused the outbreak.

All of this is happening as the federal food-safety infrastructure is being weakened. ProPublica found that inspections of foreign food facilities fell to their lowest level in more than a decade, excluding the pandemic, following Trump administration staffing cuts.

So some journalists and data experts decided to build another set of eyes.

Recall411 is a new independent tool that monitors food and product-safety information from more than 100 sources, including federal and state agencies, retailers, manufacturers, and international regulators. You can even scan a barcode and see reported complaints and injuries before you buy.

We shouldn’t need a backup watchtower for the agencies charged with keeping us safe. But right now, I’m really glad someone built one. I personally tested it out and found it incredibly helpful.

Here’s a glimpse of what is being recalled in my current home state of Virginia.

🥫Check Your Food & Products on Recall411

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❤️ One Thing For Your Soul

The stories coming out of the family detention center in Dilley, Texas, have been heartbreaking. Parents have reported children getting sick, struggling to eat, and going without basic necessities.

And in the middle of all that, there is Casey Revkin.

Through her nonprofit, Each Step Home, Casey is sending more than $10,000 a week to detained families so parents can buy food their children will actually eat, bottled water, medicine, and even candy bars for birthdays. She regularly helps nearly 80 children.

If there are angels on Earth, Casey is certainly one of them. I hope she inspires all of us to keep making a difference in our own way. No matter how big. No matter how small. It matters.

🪥 The Woman Feeding Kids in ICE Detention (WaPo)

Before I leave you this week, I want to take a moment to remember a woman who spent a lifetime showing us what it means to speak up. After the 2024 election, concerned about what the future would hold, I had the privilege of spending time with Gloria Steinem when she opened her home to an extraordinary group of women. We regrouped. We leaned on each other. I sat in that room listening as Gloria shared her wisdom with women I deeply admire. She spent a lifetime showing generations of women what it looks like to speak up, push forward, and refuse to accept that the world has to remain as it is.

Thank you for everything, Gloria. Your courage lives on in all of us.

At Gloria Steinem’s home in New York City after the 2024 election.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend,

-Olivia