After the Trump administration cut funding for the US Global Change Research Program and pulled past climate reports offline, the American Geophysical Union and American Meteorological Society created a new system to preserve this research. Instead of one coordinated government report, teams of scientists will publish peer-reviewed papers in journals that feed into a shared 'US Climate Collection.' The first entry, authored by 149 researchers—many of whom had worked on the now-defunct federal assessment—was published simultaneously in two journals to set priorities for future submissions.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-22
Hasbro and the makers of Tetris found their intellectual property appropriated in government-produced propaganda content, prompting both companies to publicly clarify that their brands do not endorse the administration's messaging. The incidents mark a growing trend of copyright holders having to respond after official government accounts repurposed their imagery without permission.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-21
The US Environmental Protection Agency announced on September 14 that it is rescinding the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards, which had required coal plants and new gas plants to capture 90 percent of their carbon emissions or close by 2039. The agency says the rollback will save industry $370 million in compliance costs, but has not disclosed the resulting public health toll.
text.hrw.org
· 2026-09-20
GasPulse is a free iPhone app that uses Energy Information Administration data to display weekly gas price trends by state or region, along with up to five years of historical pricing. It also includes an Outlook feature predicting future price direction, state comparisons, price alerts for up to six areas, and home/lock screen widgets with Siri support.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-09-19
California faces pressure from the Trump administration, which is withholding Bipartisan Infrastructure Law broadband funds from states unless they agree not to enforce net neutrality rules. California and Illinois remain the only states yet to finalize their BEAD funding agreements, and California is weighing whether to accept the federal money and abandon enforcement of its own net neutrality law or fight the condition in court. Nearly 30 advocacy groups have urged state leaders to defend the law rather than trade it away for funding.
yro.slashdot.org
· 2026-09-18
California's Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on a resolution that would exempt broadband providers from the state's net neutrality law in order to accept $1.86 billion in federal BEAD broadband deployment funding. The Trump administration's NTIA has required all states receiving BEAD money to waive enforcement of net neutrality and rate regulation against participating ISPs statewide, not just in funded areas, for up to 14 years. California and Illinois are the last two states yet to finalize their BEAD funding agreements.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-16
Investors are reportedly re-entering rare-disease drug stocks after the departure of stricter FDA regulators under the Trump administration. The shift in agency leadership has reduced concerns about tougher approval hurdles that had previously discouraged investment in this biotech segment.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-16
A year-end review of 2026's major hacks highlights an unresolved controversy over the Department of Government Efficiency's access to Social Security Administration data. Ongoing federal lawsuits and a whistleblower's claims allege DOGE staff uploaded a live copy of the Social Security database to an unsecured third-party server, potentially exposing sensitive personal information tied to most living Americans. The broader roundup also notes a year marked by ransomware, nation-state attacks on infrastructure, and data weaponization by governments.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-15
The EPA finalized a rule dismantling most of the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards for power plants, claiming the Clean Air Act doesn't authorize requiring pollution control technology it deems unproven. The agency also proposed eliminating all remaining greenhouse gas emissions requirements for power plants, asserting their emissions have no meaningful climate impact.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-15
The Trump administration's EPA, led by Lee Zeldin, has finalized plans to eliminate federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal and natural gas power plants, rolling back rules established under the Biden and Obama administrations. A companion rule would also try to block future administrations from reinstating such restrictions on power plant emissions.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-15
A federal court rejected an effort by the Trump administration to force local election officials to add a new barcode to mail-in ballot envelopes ahead of the upcoming election. The ruling found that officials lacked sufficient time to implement the redesign without disrupting the voting process.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-11
NOAA has released new agency-wide priorities framed as cutting red tape and boosting fishing communities, following Trump's April executive order on seafood competitiveness. The plan includes opening marine national monuments to commercial fishing, narrowing critical habitat protections, and loosening scientific standards that have guided fisheries management for decades.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-09
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