Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electric grid. Authorities say there is no indication of that so far. The computer at Burlington Electric that was hacked was not attached to the grid.

Statement from Burlington Electric Department:

"Last night, U.S. utilities were alerted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of a malware code used in Grizzly Steppe, the name DHS has applied to a Russian campaign linked to recent hacks," said Mike Kanarick, spokesman for Burlington Electric Department. "We acted quickly to scan all computers in our system for the malware signature. We detected the malware in a single Burlington Electric Department laptop not connected to our organization’s grid systems. We took immediate action to isolate the laptop and alerted federal officials of this finding. Our team is working with federal officials to trace this malware and prevent any other attempts to infiltrate utility systems. We have briefed state officials and will support the investigation fully."

CORRECTION: An initial version of the story stated Russia penetrated the U.S. Grid. Recchia of the Public Service Board and Kanarick of Burlington Electric Department said the grid was not compromised.

There was no “penetration of the U.S. electricity grid.” The truth was undramatic and banal. Burlington Electric, after receiving a Homeland Security notice sent to all U.S. utility companies about the malware code found in the DNC system, searched all their computers and found the code in a single laptop that was not connected to the electric grid.

Apparently, the Post did not even bother to contact the company before running its wildly sensationalistic claims, so they had to issue their own statement to the Burlington Free Press which debunked the Post’s central claim (emphasis in original): “We detected the malware in a single Burlington Electric Department laptop NOT connected to our organization’s grid systems.”

So the key scary claim of the Post story – that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electric grid – was false. All the alarmist tough-guy statements issued by political officials who believed the Post’s claim were based on fiction.

Even worse, there is zero evidence that Russian hackers were responsible even for the implanting of this malware on this single laptop. The fact that malware is “Russian-made” does not mean that only Russians can use it; indeed, like a lot of malware, it can purchased (as Jeffrey Carr has pointed out in the DNC hacking context, assuming that Russian-made malware must have been used by Russians is as irrational as finding a Russian-made Kalishnikov AKM rifle at a crime scene and assuming the killer must be Russian).

As the actual truth emerged once the utility company issued its statement, the Post rushed to fix its embarrassment, beginning by dramatically changing its headline:

The Washington Post first reported the finding, suggesting that Russian hackers had gained access to the electrical grid via the Vermont utility, however the company's statement says there's no indication that happened. In a statement, it said the laptop in question was not connected to grid systems. Vermont Public Service Commissioner Christopher Recchia told the Burlington Free Press that the grid was not in danger.

Because it's not clear exactly what matched, there's a possibility that it could be the result of a false positive, or shared code. Also, it's not clear when or how the malware got on the laptop. Based on those reasons, a number of security professionals on Twitter suggested waiting for more details before crediting this finding to Grizzly Steppe (a name attributed to the Russian attacks in Wednesday's report).

THE BIG AND VICTORIOUS MOVEMENTS OF OUR HISTORY HAVE DONE MORE THAN COMMUNICATE. They have mobilized the most fundamental source of power of ordinary people: the power to refuse to cooperate with the institutionalized routines upon which social life depends. If factory workers walk out, the factory comes to a halt; but if nannies stay home, so do the parents whose children they mind; if urbanites block highways, traffic stops; if debtors refuse, lenders are at risk—and so is a financial system anchored to massive debt.

Michelle Obama

The first lady is the most popular person on “the American political stage”, according to a WSJ/NBC poll in October, which found 59% of people had a favourable opinion of her. She was the Hillary Clinton campaign’s go-to surrogate in 2016, giving speech after speech in key swing states in an effort to shore up the vote and offering a warm, open contrast to Clinton’s more reserved personality.

Before she took to the trail, Obama’s speech at the Democratic national convention was every bit as soaring and memorable as her husband’s breakthrough address in 2004. Many in the crowd wept as Obama recapped the strides made as a result of her husband’s election and looked ahead to what Clinton’s election would do for the country.


Bernie Sanders

He didn’t win the Democratic primary. He didn’t win the presidency. But Bernie Sanders awakened and excited millions of predominantly young voters during his improbable campaign.

At the Democratic national convention the success and popularity of Sanders’ campaign helped the senator and his supporters shape the most progressive Democratic party platform in decades. It called for a $15-an-hour minimum wage, stronger climate protections, and an amendment calling for all police shootings to be investigated by the Department of Justice.

While Clinton didn’t win, Sanders’ influence could help shape the future of the Democratic party and progressive politics for a long time to come.

He set up the Our Revolution organization in August with the aim of advancing liberal reforms, and the group will be a key part of the Democrats’ attempted fightback during 2017 and the 2018 midterms.

ARNOLD: Over the past few months, NPR has talked to former Wells Fargo workers in Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Los Angeles and San Francisco. They all say that managers at the bank retaliated against them for calling the company's ethics line and pushing back against intense sales pressure to sign customers up for multiple credit cards and checking accounts.

ELIZABETH WARREN: We heard the reports on NPR about former Wells employees, and that's what got us interested. And so we started looking at the U5 and digging and finding more and more evidence of a big problem at Wells.

ARNOLD: Warren and two other senators sent a letter asking for answers from Wells Fargo about whether the bank retaliated against whistleblowers. And Warren is asking more broadly whether this U5 report card system is fair to workers.

The system is run by an industry group called FINRA. That's the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. On the one hand, if a worker takes advantage of customers, the system is effective at labeling the worker as a bad apple. But if a worker gets unfairly maligned by the bank or a manager, workers say it's almost impossible to get their records corrected. So their careers can be unfairly destroyed. Elizabeth Warren...

WARREN: The Wells Fargo scandal exposes how vulnerable bank employees are under the current system. I hope that we're going to see some changes come out of this.

The Labor Department wants to bar a concessions company from receiving new federal contracts, after the company allegedly stiffed low-wage workers inside the U.S. Senate out of $1 million.

In June, the department announced that Restaurant Associates, a subsidiary of the food service conglomerate Compass Group, would repay 674 Senate workers back wages after the company failed to pay employees the prevailing wage under federal law and didn’t compensate employees for all the hours they worked.

Restaurant Associates has since paid back the workers. But the department went a step further on Thursday, filing a complaint requesting that the company be forbidden from receiving new contracts for a period of three years. The request will now go before an administrative law judge. If approved, it will only affect future contracts, not the current one at the Senate building, which runs through 2029, according to the Labor Department filing.

The Labor Department’s investigation came on the heels of a complaint filed by Good Jobs Nation on behalf of the workers. In recent years, the group has spearheaded protests and one-day strikes by low-wage workers at buildings including the Capitol, the Smithsonian and the Pentagon, where people work in fast-food restaurants, catering and janitorial services. Some prominent liberal lawmakers have showed up at rallies to support the workers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.).

At 11:30 a.m., about 100 people gathered outside the luncheon to condemn Pence's stance on LGBTQ issues, immigration, women's rights, the climate and more.

Among the protesters were 17-year-old Becca Kovalski, who identifies as pansexual, and her mother Diane Rosenthal, who traveled from Valparaiso in Pence's home state of Indiana, where he is still governor.

"I have rights, and I want to keep them. Pence will not take my rights as a woman and as a gay," said Becca. "I can be gay and he cannot take that away from me."

Though she couldn't vote in the election, Becca wanted to get involved in the election and volunteered for the Bernie Sanders campaign.

Critics of Trump said Pence should also stay out of Chicago.

"He wants to ban all abortions, overturn laws barring discrimination against LGBT people in the guise of “freedom of religion," the protesters said of Pence in a statement. "He wants to fully unleash the police to stop and frisk black and other oppressed people. He made an anti-evolution speech on the floor of the House saying he believes in anti-scientific 'intelligent design,' arguing that it be taught in schools."

In a statement, Sen. Sanders said:

Privatizing the VA would be an insult to the more than 22 million veterans who risked their lives to defend our country and it would significantly lower the quality of health care they receive. Our goal, shared by The American Legion and other major veterans’ organizations, must be to improve the VA, not destroy it. When men and women put their lives on the line to defend us, the president must listen to them, not to the Koch brothers and their extreme right-wing, anti-government ideology. We will vigorously oppose any and all efforts to privatize the VA.

The president-elect should listen to American Legion Executive Director Verna Jones, who recently said the nation’s largest veterans’ organization ‘would like the Trump administration to know that we value our Department of Veterans Affairs’ because ‘dollar-for-dollar, there is no better care or value available anywhere in the United States – period.’

The president-elect should listen to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. ‘Politicians, pundits and politically-motivated organizations are using the national crisis in access to care at the Department of Veterans Affairs as justification to dismantle and privatize the VA health care system, with some even proposing that veterans be charged for their service-connected care. The VFW says no! Veterans must not stand idle as politicians who never served or use the VA health care system dictate when and where veterans can receive care.’

The president-elect should listen to Paul Rieckhoff of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America who said, ‘The worst case scenario within the vets community is a total dismantling of everything they worked generations to create. There is a growing fear it is all going to get burned down.’

The veterans’ organizations are right. We must protect the VA, not destroy it.

Sen. Sanders was spot on. Major veterans groups do not want the VA privatized. Conservative ideologues like the Koch brothers and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) champion privatization based on ideology, not concrete proof that a privatized VA would perform better. What is looming in the future for veterans group is a privatized VA where vets will get their healthcare through capped vouchers in the private market.

“This is not the time for despair,” wrote Santer, who is as meticulous with his words as colleagues say he is with his research. “It’s time for leaving the sidelines and entering the public arena.”

Perhaps, he said, incoming officials can still be convinced of the science to which he’s dedicated his life.

“Maybe there are people in the new administration who are willing to sit down and be educated and have a conversation,” Santer said. “I have to hope that there are those people.”

While Trump has pledged to keep an “open mind” when it comes to addressing climate change, he’s also expressed doubt about the scientific consensus on the topic. His choice to lead the Department of Energy, which oversees national laboratories like the one where Santer works, is former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who once suggested abolishing the department altogether. He’s also described climate science as a “contrived phony mess.”

Santer said scientists need to push against misinformation, even if it comes from the federal government that issues their paychecks. And communication is key, he said.