Alison Gill (27:12)
Hey everybody. If you've ever wanted to improve your yard but felt stuck on where to begin, fast growing trees is your solution. They're the largest online nursery in the United States offering a huge variety of plants, from fruit trees and flowering shrubs to privacy trees and indoor plants. With over 2 million happy customers, their reputation is well earned. What really makes them stand out is how easy they make everything. Each plant is checked with a 14 point quality system to ensure it's healthy and strong. Their alive and thrive guarantee means there's no stress. You can shop confidently knowing they stand behind what they sell. And if you're unsure what to plant, their team of experts is always there to lend you a helping hand. For me, I got a blueberry bush, I got a second avocado tree because we've been a fast growing trees partner for a long time and we put our little guacamole garden together. As it turns out, you need two avocado trees next to each other to get the cross pollination going, but the lemon and limes are popping off. So I just got another avocado tree. It's absolutely fantastic. It arrived in just a few days and it was just wonderful. Ordering from Fast Growing Trees changed everything. Showed up at the door, well packaged, vibrant, ready to plant. And now it's thriving in the backyard, the whole garden. And I get excited each time I see it. So if you're looking to bring more life to your outdoor or indoor space, Fast Growing Trees makes it simple, reliable and actually enjoyable. This spring, they have the best deals for your yard, up to half off on select plants and other deals. And listeners to this show get a 15% discount on their first purchase when using the code Daily Beans at checkout. That's an additional 15% off at fast growingtrees.com using the code daily beans at checkout fast growing trees.com code daily beans now is the perfect time to plant. Use Daily Beans to save. Today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions apply. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. All right. I have a special story here. This is from npr. It's in addition to the very long reporting that they put out earlier today on Tuesday. And this is a story about five takeaways about NPR's reporting on the whistleblower report about Doge and the National Labor Relations Board. So this comes from Morning Edition. Jenna McLaughlin, when a team of advisors from President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency Initiative arrived at the headquarters of the National Labor Relations Board, it employees at the small independent agency quickly became worried. According to a whistleblower declaration filed with Congress and shared with npr, the NLRB investigates and adjudicates complaints about unfair labor practices. Its databases store reams of potentially sensitive data, from confidential information about employees who want to form unions to proprietary business information. And I'm going to cut in here because we also know that DOGE seemingly at least we don't have a, you know, hard evidence of this, but they broke into the payment systems, and we do have evidence that they stopped allowing people to automatically deduct union dues from their government paychecks. So they are really attacking unions here. All right. Back to the story. The DOGE employees, who were effectively led by White House advisor and billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk, appeared to set their sights on accessing the NLRB's internal systems, removing sensitive data and covering their tracks. And this is a quote. I cannot attest to what their end goal was or what they were doing with the data, said the whistleblower. That's Daniel Baroulis, and he said this in an interview with npr. But I can tell you that the bits of the puzzle that I can quantify are scary. This is a very bad picture. We're looking at Tim Beerse, the NLRB's acting press secretary, denied that agency granted Doge access to its systems and said DOGE had not requested access to the AGENC systems. Baris said the agency conducted an investigation after Baroulis raised his concerns, but quote, determined that no breach of agency systems had occurred. Notwithstanding the NLRB's denial, the whistleblower's disclosure to Congress and other federal overseers provides evidence of Doge's access and the activities. NPR's reporting across the federal government also makes it clear that Doge's access to data is a widespread concern. A representative for DOGE did not respond to requests for comment, and Here are the five takeaways from NPR's report. Doge appeared to ignore standard security practices Baroulis said he was told by colleagues that Doge employees demanded the highest level of access what are called tenant owner level accounts inside the independent agency's computer systems. Those offer essentially unrestricted permissions to read, copy and alter data, and that's according to Baroulas's disclosure to Congress. Now, when an IT staffer suggested a streamlined process to activate those accounts in a way that would let their activities be tracked in accordance with NLRB security policies, the IT staffers were told to stay out of Doge's way. That's what IT says in the disclosure. For cybersecurity professionals, a failure to log activity is a cardinal sin and contradicts best practices. Quote that was a huge red flag, said Baroulis. That's something that you don't just do. It violates every core concept of security and best practice. According to the disclosure, someone had disabled controls that would prevent insecure or unauthorized mobile devices from logging onto the system without the proper security settings, there was an interface exposed to the public Internet, potentially allowing malicious actors to access their systems. Internal alerting and monitoring systems were found to be manually turned off. Multi factor authentication was disabled. Baroulis tracked sensitive data, leaving the agency's NXGen Next Gen case management system's nucleus inside the NLRB system. Then he saw a large spike in outbound traffic leaving the network itself. That kind of spike is extremely unusual, he explained in the disclosure, because data almost never directly leaves from the NLRB's databases. Quote if he didn't know the backstory, any chief information security officer worth his salt would look at a network activity like this and assume it's a nation state attacking from China or Russia. That's what Jake Braun said, a former White House cyber official. In fact, in the minutes after Doge accessed the NLRB's systems. Someone with an IP address in Russia started trying to log in. According to Baroulis's disclosure, those attempts were blocked, but they were especially alarming. Whoever was attempting to log in was using one of the newly created DOGE accounts and the person had the correct username and password. According to Baroulas, the NLRB's data is extremely sensitive and has little to do with doge's cost cutting mission. That's number two here in the five takeaways. Doge's intentions with regard to NLRB data remain unclear. Many of the systems DOGE embedded itself in across the rest of the government have payment or employment data information that DOGE could use to evaluate which grants and programs to halt and whom to fire. But the next gen case management system at NLRB is very different. It houses information about ongoing contested labor cases, lists of union activists, internal case notes, personal information from Social Security numbers to home addresses, proprietary corporate data and more information that never get published openly. Access to that data is protected by numerous federal laws, including the Privacy Act. Quote, there is nothing that I can see about what DOGE is doing that follows any of the standard procedures for how you do an audit that has integrity and that's meaningful and will actually produce results that serve the normal auditing function, which is to look for fraud, waste and abuse. That's what Sharon Block said, the executive director of Harvard Law School center for labor and Just Economy and a former NLRB board member. Next up, number three. Elon Musk's businesses are the subject of NLRB investigations. Ding, ding, ding. There are multiple ongoing cases involving the NLRB and companies controlled by Elon Musk after a group of former SpaceX employees lodged a complaint with the NLRB. Lawyers representing SpaceX, some of whom were recently hired into government jobs, filed a lawsuit against the nlrb. They argued that the agency's structure is unconstitutional. Trump and Musk during an interview with Fox News, Sean Hannity said Musk would recuse himself from anything involving his companies. Quote I haven't asked the President for anything ever, he said. I'm getting a sort of daily proctology exam here. You know, it's not like I'll be getting away with something in the dead of night. However, Doge has been granted high level access to a lot of data that could benefit Elon Musk, and there has been no evidence of a firewall preventing misuse of that data. Quote it's not that he's a random person who's getting information that a random person shouldn't have access to. That's what Harvard Law's Block said. But if they really did get everything, then he has information about the cases the government is building against him. Doge is, whether they admit it or not, headed by somebody who is the subject of active investigation and prosecution of cases. It's incredibly troubling, she says. Number four, Doge has a pattern of seeking sensitive data and not protecting it. In over a dozen lawsuits in federal courts around the United States, judges have demanded that Doge explain why it needs such expansive access to sensitive data on Americans, from Social Security records to private medical records and tax information. But the Trump administration has been unable to give consistent and clear answers, largely dismissing cybersecurity and privacy concerns. The Trump administration could be trying to codify Dodge's practices into how the government shares information. That's Kel McClanahan, the executive director of nonprofit public interest law firm National Security Counselors, who is representing federal employees in a lawsuit concerning the Office of Personnel Management's use of a private email server. Full disclosure Kel McClanahan is our lawyer in our lawsuit against Doge for Freedom of Information act request violations. Weeks after Doge staffers descended on federal buildings across D.C. trump issued an executive order urging increased data sharing by eliminating information silos in what is seen by experts like McClanahan as an attempt to give Doge engineers further top cover in accessing and amalgamating sensitive federal data despite laws concerning privacy and cybersecurity. Quote, the entire reason we have a privacy act is that Congress realized 50 years ago that the federal government was just overflowing with information about normal, everyday people and needed some guardrails in place. That's what McClanahan told NPR. The information silos are there for a reason, he continued. And finally, labor experts fear the release of this data could hurt organized labor. Yeah, accessing the next gen data would make it easier for companies to fire employees for union organizing or keep blacklists of organizers illegal activities, by the way, under the federal labor laws enforced by the nlrb. But quote, people get fired in this country all the time for the lawful act of trying to organize a union, said Block. Now, having a list of key organizers and potential members of a union would make that easier, as would having a copy of the opposing counsel's notes. As companies prepare for legal challenges, it's not just the employees who might suffer if this data got out. Companies also sometimes provide detailed statements on internal business planning and corporate structures in the midst of unfair labor practice complaint proceedings. If a company was attempting to fire someone who it alleged had disclosed trade secrets and was fighting an unfair labor practice complaint based around that decision. Those trade secrets might come up in NLRB's investigation. That information would be very valuable to competitors, regulators and others. So let's say Ford had some sort of a a trade secret dispute before the National Labor Relations Board about electric cars. I wonder if that would come in handy for Elon Musk. Overall, the potential exposure of the NLRB's data could have serious implications. And here's a quote I think it's very concerning. That's what University of California Berkeley labor scholar Harley Shaken said and went on to say it could result in damage to individual workers, to union organizing campaigns, and to unions themselves. You can check all this reporting out, including the full report@npr.org thank you so much everybody. Stick around. We'll be right back with the good news. This podcast is sponsored by Peak Peaks Radiant Skin Duo combines Sun Goddess Matcha and BT Fountain electrolytes for the ultimate in beauty and wellness. This powerful duo supports glowing, hydrated skin while boosting energy, gut health and Overall Vitality. Get 20% off on the Radiant Skin Duo plus a free starter kit at PeakLife.com DailyBeans so for years I dealt with uneven skin tone, low energy, fine lines and wrinkles, no matter how much I tried to fix it. But then I found the Radiant Skin Duo from Peak Life. It has been a game changer. The dynamic duo Sun Goddess Matcha and BT Fountain has given me the glowing skin and lasting energy I've always wanted. So the BT Fountain is my secret to hydrated youthful skin. With clinically proven ceramides, it reduces the fine lines and wrinkles while keeping my skin soft and supple. It's vegan, no added sugar, no artificial ingredients. So I know I'm putting only the best ingredients into my body and the Sun Goddess Matcha. It's unlike any matcha I've ever tried. It's packed with L theanine for calm focus and EGCG antioxidants that firm and brighten my skin. It also supports gut health, which I love. It's helped reduce bloating and helped my digestion. And together, these two products work wonders. They protect my skin, strengthen its barrier and keep it deeply hydrated for that lit from within glow. The pre measured sachets make it easy to stay consistent. Just dissolve in hot or cold water. So if you're looking for a simple way to elevate your skin and energy, the Radiant Skin Duo is it ready to transform your routine. Right now you can get 20% off the radiant Skin Duo, plus a free starter kit, which includes a rechargeable frother and a glass beaker. With my exclusive link, it's peaklife.comdailybeans that's P I Q U E life.com dailybeans don't miss out. Glow naturally into 2025 while supplies last. Everybody, welcome back. It's time for the good news. And if you have any good news confessions corrections. You want to give a shout out to somebody that you love, whether it's, you know, your spouse, a kid, a parent, yourself, Right? We love self shout outs.
