Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as national security advisor “is a frightening prospect for anyone who values America’s national security,” more than 50 organizations wrote to President-elect Donald Trump on Monday demanding he rescind the appointment “immediately.”

The letter points to Flynn’s “history of bigoted and deceitful statements,” opposition to the Iran nuclear agreement, penchant for “regime change,” and his “alarming ties to foreign governments” as evidence that he is “a completely inappropriate choice to serve in the most senior national security position in the White House.” 

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Given these concerns, the 53 progressive, religious, and peace groups, including American Friends Service Committee, Campaign for America’s Future, and Win Without War, declare Flynn “unfit for serving in this critical post.”

Elsewhere, Flynn’s affinity for conspiracy theories has thrust the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency into the spotlight after fake news rumors spurred a weekend attack on a Washington, D.C. pizza place. Flynn frequently pushes such articles on social media, casting doubt on his ability to accurately advise the incoming president.

According to a Politico review of his Twitter posts, Flynn, who boasts 106,000 followers, has personally pushed “dubious factoids at least 16 times since Aug. 9.”

2016 was a “pivotal year” for women’s health, according to a 50-state report card released Monday by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR)—and given signals from the incoming Trump administration, “2017 will undoubtedly bring new challenges and new opportunities for action.”

This year brought a historic U.S. Supreme Court victory in Whole Woman’s Health v Hellerstedt, which CRR president Nancy Northup described as “the most important abortion rights ruling in a generation.” The decision struck a major blow to the more than 300 abortion restrictions—also known as Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers, or TRAP, laws—enacted by state legislatures since 2011. 

But 2016 also saw the enactment of at least 60 bills restricting access to reproductive healthcare across the country, and the introduction of hundreds more—including nearly 100 bills linked to the smear campaign against Planned Parenthood alone.

These included Flordia’s HB 1411, “a harmful omnibus anti-abortion law that places additional restrictions and onerous requirements on abortion providers, jeopardizing their ability to provide reproductive healthcare services,” according to CRR; Louisiana’s “unprecedented” seven bills restricting abortion (the most passed by any state in 2016); and Oklahoma’s “Humanity of the Unborn Child Act,” which requires the state Department of Health to develop and distribute materials “for the purpose of achieving an abortion-free society.”

Throwing the weight of his office behind the nation’s biggest polluters, President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order directing his administration to dismantle the Obama-era Clean Water Rule.

Surrounded by other foes of environmental regulation, including the newly confirmed EPA head Scott Pruitt, the president declared the 2015 law, also known as Waters of the United States, “a horrible, horrible rule. Has sort of a nice name, but everything else is bad.”

Passed under former President Barack Obama, the Clean Water Rule extends Clean Water Act protections to streams and wetlands. As The Hill observed Tuesday, Trump’s move is seen as “an opening shot by Trump against the EPA, which was a frequent target of criticism from Republicans for alleged overreach under Obama’s tenure.”

Though implementation of the rule has been on hold due to ongoing litigation, the move drew outrage from environmental groups, who see it as a necessary provision for the protection of clean water. 

The White House has not yet released the full text of the order but it reportedly directs the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers to formally consider rolling back the rule, which Pruitt is sure to oblige given that while serving as Oklahoma attorney general he sued the agency he now heads against implementation of the Clean Water Rule.

“Water is life, and Trump’s dirty water order puts our environment and millions of American lives at risk so that polluters can profit from the destruction of our waterways,” said Marissa Knodel, oceans campaigner with the group Friends of the Earth (FOE).

“Water is life, and Trump’s dirty water order puts our environment and millions of American lives at risk so that polluters can profit from the destruction of our waterways.”
—Marissa Knodel, Friends of the Earth

“The Clean Water Rule is grounded in science and the law so that our streams and wetlands can keep us healthy and safe, provide habitat for fish and wildlife, and beautiful places to recreate,” Knodel added. “In contrast, Trump’s dirty water order is dangerous and illegal, based on corporate greed and unlawful environmental pollution.”

With Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at his side, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced a plan to offer free tuition at state and city colleges for middle- and low-income New Yorkers.

Under the Excelsior Scholarship, described as the first of its kind in the nation, students whose families make $125,000 or less per year would be eligible to attend all public universities in New York for free. More than 940,000 middle class families and individuals would qualify for the program, according to a statement from Cuomo’s office.

“A college education is not a luxury—it is an absolute necessity for any chance at economic mobility,” said Cuomo, a Democrat, “and with these first-in-the-nation Excelsior Scholarships, we’re providing the opportunity for New Yorkers to succeed, no matter what zip code they come from and without the anchor of student debt weighing them down.”

The governor said that in 2015, the average student loan debt in New York was $29,320. Once passed by the state legislature, the proposal would be phased in over three years.

Of the progressive senator from Vermont, who was present at the LaGuardia Community College announcement and made tuition-free higher education a key plank of his presidential campaign, Cuomo added: “I am honored to have the support of Senator Sanders, who led the way on making college affordability a right, and I know that together we can make this a reality with New York leading the way once again.”

Indeed, it was Sanders who pushed his one-time rival, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, to put forth a means-tested college affordability plan that Sanders praised as a “bold initiative” that would “revolutionize the funding of higher education in America.”

In his remarks in New York on Tuesday, Sanders declared: “It is basically insane to tell the young people of this country, ‘we want you to go out and get the best education you can, we want you to get the jobs of the future—oh, but after you leave school, you’re going to be 30, 50, 100 thousand dollars in debt…and you’re going to have to spend decades paying off that debt…and if you don’t pay off that debt when you’re old they may garnish your Social Security payment to pay off that debt.'”

Rallies to protect critical healthcare safety net programs took place nationwide on Sunday, on the heels of a week that saw those very programs placed squarely in Republican crosshairs. 

Spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the #OurFirstStand events hope to be “a major show of grassroots support” for programs including the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid, as well as the at-risk organization Planned Parenthood. 

And the demonstrations aim to highlight President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign trail promises not to place such critical initiatives at risk—pledges the GOP seems happy to ignore. 

“If Mr. Trump allows the Republican Party to go ahead with its plans, it will dismantle the healthcare system and jeopardize the economic security of millions of Americans,” Sanders said. “Our message to the Republicans is simple and straightforward. You are not going to get away with it. You are not going to punish the elderly, disabled veterans, the children, the sick, and the poor while you reward your billionaire friends.”

The Trump administration is vetting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) pending work before allowing it to be published, in the president’s latest crackdown on federal bureaus and science in general.

According to Doug Ericksen, communications director for Trump’s transition team at the EPA, the mandate refers to “all existing content on the federal agency’s website, including details of scientific evidence showing that the Earth’s climate is warming and man-made carbon emissions are to blame,” the Associated Press reports.

New work is also on a “temporary hold” before it can be released, the AP said.

Erikson clarified earlier statements made to the outlet that indicated all future information would be subject to political review before publication, noting that the mandate only applies to existing data, and that the hold should be lifted by Friday. However, he said during the earlier interview, “We’re taking a look at everything on a case-by-case basis, including the web page and whether climate stuff will be taken down.”

The clarifications did little to quell public fear that Trump had essentially launched a war on science, especially after one of the administration’s first moves was to scrub any mention of combating climate change from the official White House website.

The review mandate also follows a series of other orders from Trump that are seemingly intended to prevent the dissemination of scientific data, including putting a media blackout on several federal departments and a freeze on EPA hiring and grants (though that, too, may end on Friday). The widespread crackdown prompted an unofficial resistance movement, including the creation of numerous “rogue” agency Twitter accounts, such as @AltUSNatParkService, @RogueNASA, @ungaggedEPA, @ActualEPAFacts, and @AltHHS.

Former EPA staffers under Republican and Democratic presidents said the restrictions go far beyond anything seen in previous administrations.