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Attorney General Ken Paxton Investigates the American Academy of Pediatrics for Deceptively Promoting Childhood Vaccines for Financial Gain
The Attorney General of Texas reported:
Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into the American Academy of Pediatrics (“AAP”) over concerns that the organization may be promoting and recommending childhood vaccines for financial gain. The AAP is the largest professional association of pediatricians in the United States. It has been issuing informal vaccine recommendations since the early 1930s.
Since 1995, to allegedly maintain a “unified” schedule that simplified recommendations for providers, the AAP has participated in the development of the CDC’s Childhood Vaccine Schedule in collaboration with other groups. For decades, it has consistently promoted the schedule’s recommendations to providers and the public.
In 2025, after U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in, HHS began making changes to the CDC Childhood Vaccine Schedule. Secretary Kennedy reconstituted the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (“ACIP”), which is a committee of scientific and immunization experts that has historically made vaccine recommendations to HHS.
Fauci Contempt Vote Reflects the Enduring Politics of COVID
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Dr. Anthony Fauci is sitting before Congress, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on TV debating COVID lockdowns and Americans can’t agree on what science to trust. You might think it’s 2020 again.
Six years after COVID-19 thrust the world into the fear and uncertainty of a global pandemic, Republicans in power aren’t leaving it in the past. Instead, they’ve recently returned its familiar political arguments to center stage for new scrutiny, demanding accountability for the scientists and media figures whom they feel deceived and mistreated Americans years ago.
The efforts ramped up last week, when a Republican-led Senate committee chaired by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul subpoenaed the now-retired, 85-year-old Fauci to testify about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The former National Institutes of Health immunologist repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment, after accusing the lawmakers of trying to coerce him to perjure himself to justify criminal charges. In response to his choice, on Thursday, the committee passed a vote to hold Fauci in contempt, a stunning move that could motivate the Justice Department to initiate an investigation.
Trump’s Vision for A.I. Dominance Comes With Major Air Pollution
In March, a developer working on a Meta data center in El Paso applied to power the site with a gas-burning plant large enough to supply electricity to 300,000 homes.
Typically, approving a big power plant might require public hearings and months of detailed vetting. But Texas environmental regulators signed off in just 20 days.
They approved another project in three days. And an even larger data center power plant, also gas-burning, won approval in just two days. All without public notice.
“They’re going to fire up those turbines,” said Cynthia Crouse, who lives about a mile from the planned Meta data center and power plant in an upscale development with panoramic views of the desert. “I thought I’d bought my dream home, that I’d be looking out on the dark sky, hearing the coyotes call. Then I woke up to the biggest nightmare I’ve ever had.”
U.S. Moves to Shut a Kentucky Organ Donation Group, Citing Safety Failures
The Trump administration said Wednesday it will shut down a Kentucky organ donation group accused of continuing plans for organ retrieval from some patients who unexpectedly showed signs of life.
While those surgeries were canceled, the cases made headlines several years ago, prompting a spike in people around the country revoking their organ donor registrations.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the nonprofit Network for Hope “a bad apple” and accused it of “persistent safety failures” in announcing the government was starting the process to decertify it.
Wyden Proposes New Taxes on Data Centers
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, wants to put more of a federal tax framework around data centers. Wyden proposed on Thursday to strip away tax incentives if they’re applied toward building data centers, arguing that the current construction boom shows that tech companies don’t need the help.
He also wants to impose a low single-digit excise tax that would generate new revenue from data centers, which have prompted concerns around the country about environmental impacts and the rise of artificial intelligence. It’s still less aggressive of an approach toward data centers as some of Wyden’s colleagues, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who along with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has proposed a nationwide moratorium on new data center construction.
Wyden’s new white paper stated that his proposals “will not end data center development or put at risk the U.S. maintaining its status as the global leader in AI and other innovative technologies.”
HHS Unveils Proposed Head Start Reforms to Expand Access and Empower Parents
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced that the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) unveiled a new proposed rule, “Reducing Federal Burden for Head Start Programs,” aimed at delivering on President Donald J. Trump’s vision to expand access, reduce red tape, and refocus the program on its core mission of preparing America’s most vulnerable children for success.
“Head Start began as a bold commitment to the health, dignity, and potential of every child. My uncle, Sarge Shriver, founded the program on a simple conviction: strong families, wholesome nutrition, and healthy childhood development can change the course of a child’s life,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
“Today, we are returning Head Start to those roots. We are removing unnecessary bureaucracy, strengthening nutrition and physical health, trusting parents and local communities, and opening Head Start to hundreds of thousands more children. That’s how we renew the promise of Head Start for the next generation.”
