The government shutdown will continue until Congress can pass a bill reopening it. Samuel Corum/AFP via Getty Images U.S. science always suffers during government shutdowns. Funding lapses send government scientists home without pay. Federal agencies suspend new grant opportunities, place expert review panels on hold, and stop collecting and analyzing critical public datasets that tell …
This the fourth in a series by Sabrina I. Pacifici on the Trump administration’s relentless attacks against science, medicine and public health, government sponsored data collection and reporting, climate science, and censorship of government documents and federally funded academic research and scholarship. Our country continues to face daily attacks on our civil liberties, access to accurate, actionable and science based medical and health information, broadening censorship of government information, and the dismantling of our non partisan federal workforce. These attacks have bypassed laws and regulations that exist to ensure equality, justice, the rule of law and the safeguarding of civil liberties. These dangerous cracks in the pillars of US democracy have shattered long agreed upon norms that have until January 20, 2025 defined how the institutions and procedures of our three co-equal branches of government, the legislative, executive, and judicial branches sustain democracy. In the month of October alone, our government and the economy, public health and safety, our legal system, science and research, food and nutrition programs, public health and critical vaccine programs, have sustained irrevocable blows by the Trump administration.
As of October 1, 2025, Donald Trump has signed a total of 210 executive orders during his current administration. Attorneys in many areas of practice need to know how to keep up with the latest EOs, as these orders may impact the funding, operations, staff or rights of the companies, individuals, and organizations they represent. Those who typically practice outside of federal administrative law may be less familiar with researching EOs, beyond what they learned in law school. Law Librarian, attorney and educator Michelle M. LaLonde’s guide pinpoints key primary and secondary sources to keep pace with this torrent of government documents.
Prof. Richard Forno, Associate Director, UMBC Cybersecurity Institute, elucidates why the current Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) situation is grim, as the agency was already experiencing deep cuts to its staff and resources before the ongoing shutdown. And now, coinciding with the shutdown, a key law that enabled the agency to facilitate information-sharing with the private sector has expired.
United States experiences its latest government shutdown, most of the daily operations of the federal government have ground to a halt. This includes much of the day-to-day work done by federal information technology and cybersecurity employees, including those at the nation’s leading civilian cybersecurity agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: NIST says that there are three main ways to sanitize data; Google misled users about their privacy and now owes them $425m, says court; USAi tool lets agencies test for AI biases, GSA official says; FBI warns of cybercriminals using fake FBI crime reporting portals; and Morgan Stanley fined $35m after hard drives sold with customer info still on them.
This semi-monthly column by Sabrina I. Pacifici highlights news, government documents, NGO/IGO papers, conferences, industry white papers and reports, academic papers and speeches, and central bank actions on the subject of AI’s fast paced impact on the banking and finance sectors. The chronological links provided are to the primary sources, and as available, indicate links to alternate free versions. Five highlights from this post: AI will reshape Wall Street. Here’s how the industry’s biggest firms, from JPMorgan to Blackstone, are adapting it; Algorithmic Coercion with Faster Pricing; Generative AI at the Crossroads: Light Bulb, Dynamo, or Microscope?; Use and Oversight in Financial Services. Report to Congressional Committees.
Sabrina I. Pacifici’s overview of selected articles highlights the devastating impact of the Trump administration’s dismantling of agencies across the federal government, with a focus on cancelling critical scientific and health related research grants, as reported in July, 2025. The total cancellation of funds is escalating as grant suspensions are ongoing, but it is in the billions of dollars. Unilateral, sweeping and rapid actions are targeting a wide range of projects, programs, education and funding for research on critical health issues including: Alzheimers’, cancer, the climate crisis, weather and forecasting, vaccines, HIV, infectious diseases, food and drug safety, fossil fuels, air and water pollution.
In this Mostly Lawful deep dive, we’ll examine how Trump (abetted by his most ghoulish advisor, Stephen Miller – basically Trump’s Count Dracula with a law degree and a hate for due process) has clashed with legal limits and states’ prerogatives—earning sharp rebukes from courts, generals, and even some conservatives. Strap in for a journey through Trump’s federalist faceplant, with your expert legal guide Kyle K. Courtney, complete with case law, statutory showdowns, vampires, and a healthy dose of dry wit.
Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: Deepfake Scams Are Distorting Reality Itself; Why does Amazon use palm scanners at Whole Foods and doctors’ offices? Crypto news: Why shocking and violent “wrench attacks” are going to get worse; Privacy Alarm: Meta Caught De-Anonymizing Android Web Activity; and When the FBI Has a Phone It Can’t Crack, It Calls These Israeli Hackers.
What is the status of the official data published by U.S. federal statistical agencies? As the current administration continues its disassembling of huge swaths of the federal government, not only are the workers and services gone, so of course is much of the data generated by those employees. And federal statistical data and datasets, whether census data or statistics on the economy, health, education, or other critical public matters, are what librarians and information professionals rely upon to answer patron questions and perform research and analysis for internal, data-driven projects. This article by Robert Berkman is a roundup of where these cuts and significant changes are happening and offers alternatives to locate datasets and statistical data that are no longer available.