Top headlines
- Greenland isn’t for sale. If it were, the US would be a keen bidder
- Lightning strikes make caterpillar fungus-hunting a deadly pursuit
- Pet vaccine hesitancy is bad for dogs, cats and humans, too
Lead story
On Aug. 3, 1789, President George Washington dispatched a letter with the names of 139 nominees for “Collectors, Naval Officers and Surveyors for the Ports” to the Senate for confirmation. Included among them were Eppes Sergeant and Samuel Whittemore, Washington’s choices, respectively, for the posts of District & Port Collector and Surveyor in Gloucester, the Massachusetts fishing port where I live.
“Washington, the first president of the United States, operated from the assumption that the president and the Senate should be actively involved in approving even the lowest-level officials,” writes Washington University in St. Louis historian Peter Kastor. “After early nominations for the likes of Thomas Jefferson, the first secretary of state, and Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the Treasury, Washington personally nominated hundreds of customs collectors, low-ranking officers in the military and territorial officials.”
Kastor has spent almost 20 years studying the federal appointment process. As confirmation hearings begin in the Senate today for Donald Trump’s high-level appointees, Kastor’s look at how the confirmation process evolved collaboratively over almost 250 years provides a revealing window into the much more contested process now.
We’re providing this story along with more than a dozen – and counting – profiles of top administration positions. We’re not profiling Trump’s choices – you can find those stories elsewhere. Our stories describe the job of the secretary of the interior, or the director of national intelligence, attorney general or head of the FBI. You can then evaluate the Trump pick’s qualifications for the job.
Naomi Schalit, Senior Editor, Politics + Democracy
Politics + Society
When presidents would send handwritten lists of their nominees to the Senate, things were a lot different
The US now faces the likelihood of a bruising and raucous set of confirmation hearings − a clear break from the cooperative system the founders established.
Science + Technology
Environment + Energy
LA fires: Why fast wildfires and those started by human activities are more destructive and harder to contain
The causes of the wind-driven fires that burned thousands of homes in the Los Angeles area are under investigation, but there were no lightning strikes reported at the time.
Firefighting planes are dumping ocean water on the Los Angeles fires − why using saltwater is typically a last resort
In emergencies, dumping ocean water on fires may be the best option. But seawater can have long-term effects on equipment and ecosystems, as a novel coastal experiment shows.
International
4 reasons why the US might want to buy Greenland – if it were for sale, which it isn’t
The Danish-controlled island is coveted by some external actors who see the vast territory as a vector for precious minerals and great-power politics.
Economy + Business
We study aging family business incumbents who refuse to let go − here’s why the 2024 race felt familiar
Donald Trump is acting like the classic patriarch of a family business − and he’s not the only politician to do so.
What’s an H-1B visa? A brief history of the controversial program for skilled foreign workers
The struggle has yielded both compromises and new strips of red tape for more than 100 years.
Arts + Culture
