21 members of the Senate Committee considering Betsy DeVos's nomination for Secretary of Education have taken tens of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions from Betsy DeVos and her family - a total of more than $950,000!

“Hi, I’m a constituent, and I’m very concerned about the contributions he/she has received from Betsy DeVos and her family. Senator (name) should recuse him/herself from voting on her confirmation to avoid the appearance of pay-to-play politics. I hope Senator (name) does the right thing and recuses him/herself. Thank you.”

Sen. Roy Blunt (MO) - $33,100: (202) 224-5721
Sen. Richard Burr (NC) - $43,200: (202) 224-3154
Sen. Bill Cassidy (LA) - $70,200: (202) 224-5824
Sen. Tom Cotton (AR) - $26,000: (202) 224-2353
Sen. Steve Daines (MT) - $46,800: (202) 224-2651
Sen. Cory Gardner (CO) - $49,800: (202) 224-5941
Sen. Chuck Grassley (IA) - $21,600: (202) 224-3744
Sen. Ron Johnson (WI) - $38,600: (202) 224-5323
Sen. John McCain (AZ) - $50,600: (202) 224-2235
Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY) - $36,400: (202) 224-2541
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK) - $43,200: (202) 224-6665
Sen. David Perdue (GA) - $23,400: (202) 224-3521
Sen. Rob Portman (OH) - $51,000: (202) 224-3353
Sen. Mike Rounds (SD) - $46,800: (202) 224-5842
Sen. Marco Rubio (FL) - $98,300: (202) 224-3041
Sen. Tim Scott (SC) - $49,200: (202) 224-6121
Sen. Dan Sullivan (AK) - $23,400: (202) 224-3004
Sen. John Thune (SD) - $17,500: (202) 224-2321
Sen. Thom Tillis (NC) - $70,200: (202) 2246342
Sen. Pat Toomey (PA) - $60,050: (202) 224-4254
Sen. Todd Young (IN) - $48,600: (202) 224-5623

If your senator is not listed above, you can call the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and add your voice in support of recusal - just call 202-224-5375.

After you've spoken with your senator's office, fill out the below form to let us know how they responded.

What started out as a Reddit and Facebook discussion has now blossomed into a full-fledged movement. If you are a scientist, or just believe in empirical science, it's time to get behind the Scientists' March on Washington. In a concerted effort to bolster the wallets of their billionaire buddies to the exclusion of the earth's health and basic reason, Trump's administration is taking every opportunity to get rid of regulations that protect our planet, while denying climate change exists. They've even taken to silencing federal workers who are tweeting out scientific facts that run counter to the GOP's agenda. This has forced several federal agencies to set up rogue Twitter accounts to make sure their voices are heard. Follow these guys immediately if not sooner:

@AltForestServ
@AltNatParkSer
@Alt_NASA
@altUSEPA
@Alt_CDC
@AltHHS
@alt-fda
@Alt_NIH
@altusda
@BadHombreNPS

That's why it's more important than ever to support science, and the people behind it. And in order for scientists to have an impact on our out of control government, they're planning a Scientists' March on Washington in March (exact date is yet to be determined).

Trump has falsely called climate change a "hoax"
and said he will roll back measures aimed at stopping global warming, sparking concern among climate scientists.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A federal court has ruled that federal immigration officials and the state of Rhode Island violated the Constitution in detaining a U.S. citizen without probable cause while the federal government investigated her immigration status.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of Ada Morales, who was born in Guatemala and became a naturalized United States citizen in 1995. In 2009, when she was arrested by Rhode Island authorities for an unrelated state charge, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued an immigration hold against her. A judge had ordered her release, but the state Department of Corrections held her for an additional 24 hours solely because of the ICE detainer, and even after she repeatedly told officials she was a U.S. citizen and offered to show them her naturalization certificate and passport.

The detention, the ACLU lawsuit charged, violated her constitutional rights to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. In a strongly worded opinion issued today, U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. agreed, writing that Morales’ “illegal detention revealed a dysfunction of constitutional proportion at both the state and federal levels and a unilateral refusal to take responsibility for the fact that a United States citizen lost her liberty due to a baseless immigration detainer through no fault of her own.” The judge also said the facts surrounding Morales’ unlawful detention “are disturbing on many levels” and “should concern all Americans.”

That Roy Cohn.

Roy Cohn, the lurking legal hit man for red-baiting Sen. Joe McCarthy, whose reign of televised intimidation in the 1950s has become synonymous with demagoguery, fear-mongering and character assassination. In the formative years of Donald Trump’s career, when he went from a rich kid working for his real estate-developing father to a top-line dealmaker in his own right, Cohn was one of the most powerful influences and helpful contacts in Trump’s life.

Over a 13-year-period, ending shortly before Cohn’s death in 1986, Cohn brought his say-anything, win-at-all-costs style to all of Trump’s most notable legal and business deals. Interviews with people who knew both men at the time say the relationship ran deeper than that—that Cohn’s philosophy shaped the real estate mogul’s worldview and the belligerent public persona visible in Trump’s presidential campaign.

WASHINGTON —— President Donald Trump will refuse to release his tax returns, abandoning a campaign promise that he would do so after an audit of them is finished, an aide said Sunday.

“The White House response is that he’s not going to release his tax returns. We litigated this all through the election. People didn’t care. They voted for him,” Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said on ABC’s “This Week.”

After Conway’s remarks, the website WikiLeaks called on leakers to provide it with copies of Trump’s tax returns.