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President Trump has issued an executive order turning an estimated 8,000 federal workers into at-will employees, which means the government could fire them without providing any reason. ... Nearly all of the 8,000 people affected are at the highest level of the civil service, known as GS-15. The Trump administration characterizes the roles as senior positions with significant influence over policy. (Hsu, 6/3)

The Department of Veterans Affairs has overhauled how it purchases prosthetic limbs, a shift that immediately speeds up delivery for thousands of veterans nationwide. The change matters because prosthetic orders have long been slowed by layers of procurement rules that added weeks to wait times for veterans who rely on these devices for mobility, independence, and recovery. The new policy removes most contracting reviews, affecting the vast majority of prosthetic limb orders and setting up a steep drop in average delivery times in the months ahead. (Castro, 6/3)

The administration is laying the groundwork for chatbots that can diagnose illness and prescribe medicine, but physicians say AI can introduce more problems. (Dwoskin, 6/4)

ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News: RFK Jr. Seeks To Peek At Americans’ Medical Records For Clues On Autism And Vaccines

U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pursuing federal government access to most Americans’ medical records, in a quest to research a link between vaccines and autism — a connection the medical establishment studied for decades and flatly rejects. The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking data from little-known state systems that allow hospitals and clinics to exchange detailed, identifiable patient information, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News has learned. (Seitz and Tahir, 6/4)

Businessman Zach Lahn’s win in Iowa’s Republican gubernatorial primary over President Donald Trump’s pick, Rep. Randy Feenstra, delivered a rare electoral setback for Trump in a primary season that had handed him back-to-back victories. The narrow upset Tuesday revealed cracks in Trump’s coalition in the red state that helped the president mount his comeback, encouraging Democrats who are hopeful they can flip control of the governor’s office this year. It also marked a potential breakthrough moment for the Make America Healthy Again movement, which has clashed with the Trump administration over its embrace of pesticides and backed Lahn’s message in favor of regenerative farming and against large agricultural corporations. (Fingerhut and Swenson, 6/3)

A special edition of the American Journal of Public Health features ultra-processed food experts who want MAHA priorities turned into government policy. (Todd, 6/3)

President Donald Trump announced at a private dinner at the White House Wednesday night he will nominate Todd Blanche to be attorney general. When Trump makes the nomination official, it will end Blanche’s two months serving in the role in an acting capacity since his predecessor, Pam Bondi, was fired. Since then, Blanche, Trump’s firebrand former personal attorney, has taken great pains to prove to the president that he is up for the job. (Holmes and Rabinowitz, 6/4)

President Donald Trump’s medical reports no longer include a common hair-loss prevention drug that his physicians said he routinely used during his first term in office. Finasteride — also known by the brand name Propecia — is used by millions of American men to prevent male-pattern hair loss. Three of Trump’s past physicians have said that he used the drug before and during his first term as president. (Diamond, 6/4)