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RFK Jr. To Tell Medical Schools to Teach Nutrition or Lose Federal Funding
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he plans to tell American medical schools they must offer nutrition courses to students or risk losing federal funding from the HHS.
Speaking at an event in North Carolina in April, Kennedy lamented, “There’s almost no medical schools that have nutrition courses, and so [aspiring physicians] are taught how to treat illnesses with drugs but not how to treat them with food or to keep people healthy so they don’t need the drugs.” He added, “One of the things that we’ll do over the next year is to announce that medical schools that don’t have those programs are not going to be eligible for our funding, and that we will withhold funds from those who don’t implement those kinds of courses.”
The idea, which Kennedy mentioned in passing at an event focused on plastics in the environment, lacks details but has drawn optimism from some nutrition experts who have for years sought ways for medical schools to teach more nutrition content.
Trump DOJ Investigates Biden’s Pardons: Report
President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is investigating pardons issued by former President Joe Biden over concerns about his competency and the use of an AutoPen to sign the documents, according to a report.
Ed Martin, the DOJ’s pardon attorney, wrote in an email reviewed by Reuters that the investigation would examine if Biden “was competent” and if other people were “taking advantage of him” by using the AutoPen “or other means.” Reuters reported Martin’s investigation will examine the number of preemptive pardons Biden issued to members of the House Select Jan. 6 committee, his family members and their spouses, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and others.
The investigation will also examine the clemency approved by Biden that spared 37 federal inmates from the death penalty and instead changed their sentences to life in prison.
Gov./FCC Auction of Spectrum Ignores Federal Court Ruling!
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was created by an act of Congress in 1934 in order to manage and allocate nonfederal use of wireless spectrum; which includes radio broadcasting, mobile communications and satellite services. These bands carry information in the form of vibrations (frequencies) within defined channels. They include phone calls, music, news, TV, emergency communication etc.
It was in 1993 that Congress authorized the FCC to use competitive bidding (auctions) to grant long term licenses for rights to use specific frequencies for commercial wireless communication. This coincided with the advent of and subsequent rapid growth of wireless telecom, cell phones, the internet, and telemarketing. Banks of antennas were installed on towers, building rooftops, water towers, steeples, and satellite dishes appeared like mushrooms.
Towers hosting multiple telecom providers dotted the landscape and the exploding world-wide addiction to wireless connection made owning bands of spectrum worth billions at auction. So what has evolved, is a trillion-dollar Telecom industry, which at auction feeds billions into an independent government appointed commission (FCC), that auctions them spectrum, while setting industry friendly regulations and allowing indefensibly high public exposure levels.
In August of 2021 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decided in favor of an action: EHT and CHD vs. FCC. In this lawsuit The Environmental Health Trust and Children’s Health Defense submitted over 11,000 pages of scientific studies, medical reports and victim testimony that challenged the FCC failure to review and update allowable public exposure rates.
Trump-Backed Pesticide Report Led by RFK Jr. Draws Fire From Agrichemical Industry
A new report linking pesticide overuse to children’s health issues has ignited a battle within President Donald Trump’s circle of support, pitting powerful agrichemical giants against some organic food advocates.
Last month, the Make America Healthy Again commission, chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., published a report on declining childhood health metrics. One of the leading culprits, according to the report, was the more than 1 billion pounds of pesticides used annually on the nation’s crops.
“This administration has done something that no other administration has ever done, which is to acknowledge the impact of toxic chemicals and products in our environment and in our society that are contributing to our physical and mental and reproductive health crisis,” said Zen Honeycutt, executive director of Moms Across America, a nonprofit that has called for a ban on dozens of pesticides.
HHS Staffers Sue Over ‘Hopelessly Error-Ridden’ Layoffs
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began notifying employees that they would be laid off on April 1 as part of a departmental restructuring, amid the Trump administration’s larger push to drastically reduce the federal workforce.
The process was quickly dogged with questions about its legitimacy, with many affected staffers noting that termination notices included incorrect performance scores, office names and other information.
Healthcare Dive has reported extensively on the potential illegality of the RIF, including paperwork issues, the closure of congressionally mandated offices and inconsistencies with how the Trump administration decided which employees to terminate. Now, a group of terminated HHS staffers are suing over the “hopelessly error-ridden” personnel records that were used to underpin the cuts.
Dismantling CDC’s Chronic Disease Center ‘Looks Pretty Devastating’ to Public Health Experts
Chronic disease isn’t going away, but a national center devoted to its prevention may be, a prospect that is alarming agency insiders and public health officials across the country.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ budget for 2026, released Friday, proposed $14 billion in discretionary funding for programs that aim to reverse the chronic disease epidemic, but it would also abolish the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
“If this center is eliminated, state and local departments lose core prevention funds. And they lose the workforce for schools, chronic disease prevention, data collection, surveillance systems,” a senior official at the CDC chronic disease center told STAT on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “If folks care about kids, schools rely on this.”
The Shrewd Startup Founder Who Led Doge’s Cost-Cutting at HHS
The relentless drumbeat of cuts to U.S. government research and disease prevention have devastated tens of thousands of affected workers and academics. To hear them tell it, today’s children and grandchildren will live shorter lives and the brightest scientists will flee the country.
There’s one man at the center of it all and, chances are, you haven’t even heard of him.
Brad Smith has been a leading figure within the Trump administration’s U.S. DOGE Service, directing its cost-cutting efforts at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a vast agency whose charges include ensuring drugs are safe, preventing diseases from spreading, and administering health care for older, disabled, and low-income Americans.
