When Pope John Paul II visited Damascus in May 2001, Bashar used his welcoming speech to denounce the Jews, saying, “They tried to kill the principles of all religions with the same mentality in which they betrayed Jesus Christ and the same way they tried to betray and kill the Prophet Muhammad.”   read more

Human Right Watch argues “sufficient evidence exists” for Attorney General Lynch to carry out investigations of “senior United States officials and others involved in the post-September 11 CIA program for torture, conspiracy to torture, and other crimes.” HRW offers evidence to support criminal charges against those responsible for state-sanctioned torture, and claims the Senate "torture report" showed that CIA torture was “more brutal, systematic, and widespread” than had been previously found.   read more

Court documents revealed 113 students reported being raped at FSU last year, but the school officially reported only 14 such cases. Melissa Ashton, former director of the FSU’s Victim Advocate Office, testified that in the nine years she worked there, 40 football players were accused of either sexual assault or “intimate partner” violence, but to her knowledge, only one person had been held responsible. “She said most of the women chose not to pursue the cases ‘based on fear,’” said the Times.   read more

Crime isn’t paying like it used to, at least for burglars. They’d be better served working for the federal government. Armstrong Economics pointed out last month that in 2014, U.S. Attorneys seized more than $4.5 billion of assets. An even larger figure, more than $5 billion in assets, was forfeited to the departments of Justice and Treasury. The loss to burglaries, on the other hand, was about $3.5 billion last year. “The police are now taking more assets than the criminals,” wrote Armstrong.   read more

Before his nomination, Califf helped design and oversee a clinical trial for Xarelto, which thins blood in heart patients. With Califf's help, the drug won FDA approval in spite of two FDA warning letters before the trial began and a later recall notice that said testing devices in the trial could deliver false test results. An FDA review of the trial showed it was biased in favor of approving Xarelto, Patients using Xarelto were said to be “at greater risk of harm from stroke and/or bleeding.”   read more

Last year saw an 80% spike in the total number of deaths from terrorism, the highest increase since 2000. The vast majority of terrorist deaths don’t happen in Western countries. Five countries — Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria—accounted for 78% of the terrorism death toll in 2014, The six new countries with more than 500 deaths were Somalia, Ukraine, Yemen, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Cameroon.   read more

This year Montana was at the top of the list again. The state was the worst in the country for its traffic fatality rate and was among the worst in several other categories, including speeding, careless driving and failure to obey traffic laws. “Montana has the potentially deadly combination of high speed limits and severe winter weather that could really be driving up fatality rates,” said Tyler Spraul, director of the study. Second place went to South Carolina and New Mexico in a tie.   read more

The Air Force was forced to use contractors to fly its MQ-9 Reaper drones because it has struggled to recruit, train and retain military drone pilots. But some people are concerned. “The more closely related an activity is to the kill chain, the greater the likelihood the activity should be barred from contractor performance,” wrote Maj. Keric D. Clanahan in Air Force Law Review. He urged the Pentagon to “only allow military personnel to serve as aircraft pilots and … sensor operators.”   read more

The EPA banned the use of methyl bromide in U.S. homes in 1984. It is still used on American farms and throughout the Caribbean, including illegally in U.S. territories. Its continued use gained attention after a family from Wilmington, Delaware, nearly died from exposure to the pesticide on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands nine months ago. Two of the family’s boys are still hospitalized in Delaware, suffering from neurological damage and paralysis. The father is also paralyzed.   read more

Three decades of established federal policy that gave watchdogs unrestricted access to government records in their investigations is now at serious risk of being undone. That includes at least 20 investigations that have been slowed or completely shut down. “This is by far the most aggressive assault on the inspector general concept since the beginning,” said professor Paul Light. “It’s the complete evisceration of the concept. You might as well fold them down. They’ve become defanged.”   read more

“We’re going to see a stream of edited animals coming through because it’s so easy,” said professor Whitelaw. “It’s going to change the societal question from, ‘If we could do it, would we want it?’ to, ‘Next year we will have it; will we allow it?’” A variety of gene-altered creatures are already being created in labs for purposes of battling disease to enriching the food industry. Human gene manipulation is the logical next step, a prospect that excites some and frightens others.   read more

“It is clear that we’ve reached a tipping point,” Collins wrote. “In accordance with NIH’s commitment in June 2013, I have reassessed the need to maintain chimpanzees for biomedical research and decided that effective immediately, NIH will no longer maintain a colony of 50 chimpanzees for future research.” Additionally, NIH intends to develop a plan for phasing out all agency support for the remaining chimps that are supported by, but not owned by, the NIH.   read more

Jeb Bush adviser John Noonan wrote: “Forced federal registration of US citizens, based on religious identity, is fascism. Period. Nothing else to call it.” Another right-wing voice, Iowa radio host Steve Deace, remarked: “If Obama proposed the same religion registry as Trump every conservative in the country would call it what it is—creeping fascism.” Trump’s attempts to control the media and inciting violence against critics also suggest fascist characteristics, according to some historians.   read more

Pew Research Center conducted a survey last year to discover what differences appear between telephone polls and those conducted online. Pew found that questions asked on the phone about the quality of a respondent’s life tended to have more positive answers than those posed online. Societal discrimination was another area that had a noticeable difference, with telephone subjects more often saying gays and lesbians, Hispanics and blacks face a lot of discrimination.   read more

The Republican presidential hopeful has gotten nearly $8.5 million in TV advertising and he hasn’t paid a dime for it. The ads have come courtesy of the Conservative Solutions Project, an organization that is supposed to use its money to promote social welfare causes. But the only cause it appears to be promoting is Rubio’s, which would appear to be a violation of IRS regulations. The New York Times called the organization’s tactic “one of the most brazen” abuses of the political finance system.   read more

The judge’s rulings in the case are seen as setting a precedent in support of requests for e-file data from the government and, consequently, may motivate the IRS and other federal agencies to overhaul its longtime method of releasing records. The IRS had balked at complying with the FOIA request, claiming that it would cost $6,200 to develop new technology and train its employees in its use--an "undue burden" under a "sequestration" budget. Judge William Orrick rejected that excuse.   read more

In his confirmation hearing on Nov. 17, 2015, Califf drew opposition from Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders on his ties to the drug industry. “At a time when millions of Americans cannot afford to purchase the prescription drugs they need, we need a new leader at the FDA who is prepared to stand up to the pharmaceutical companies and work to substantially lower drug prices,” Sanders said. “Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that Dr. Califf is not that person.”   read more