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

Public defenders in Fresno County, Calif., have an unwieldy caseload with each attorney averaging 700 felony cases a year, making it virtually impossible to give clients a decent defense. Now the American Civil Liberties Union has sued Fresno County and the state of California for shortchanging the local public defender’s office’s budget.   read more

Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer has come in for severe criticism since it became known that he killed Cecil, a 13-year-old lion who was lured out of a national park in Zimbabwe by local guides. Palmer reportedly paid about $54,000 for the chance to kill Cecil.   read more

The Senate may be about to take up cybersecurity legislation and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) wants to make sure his colleagues put the subject in the proper context. To do that, Wyden wants a memo produced by the George W. Bush administration on the subject to be made public. So far, Wyden has been unsuccessful in getting the memo released before the Senate considers the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA).   read more

Starting a few years ago, DeKalb County, Ga., officials began using its Recorder's Court to prosecute individuals who had broken state laws, even though the Recorder’s Court lacks the legal authority to do so. The county is now being sued in a class-action case claiming the court was used to bolster local revenues as part of a “scheme to generate revenue for a cash-strapped local government.”   read more

Obama’s own State Dept. reported that U.S. diplomats were prevented from observing the elections, saying it was “troubled” that opposition party observers were kept out. And Obama’s national security advisor, Susan E. Rice, told reporters that the result of the election was not credible. “The prime minister of Ethiopia was just elected with 100 percent of the vote, which I think suggests...some concern for the integrity of the electoral process,” she said.   read more

The IG found examples of informants who had broken the law and were being investigated while working with the DEA. “In some cases, the DEA continued to use, for up to six years without any (Justice Dept.) intervention, individuals who were involved in unauthorized illegal activities and who were under investigation by federal entities,” according to the report. The inspector general was stonewalled in his efforts to get information from DEA, delaying access to reports “for months at a time."   read more

One of these innocent bystanders was Dillan Harris, a 13-month-old child who was fatally struck earlier this month near a Chicago bus stop by a man fleeing police. The suspect led police on a 3.5-mile chase that included running four red lights and driving at speeds up to 70 mph in an area with a speed limit of 30 mph. Watkins lost control of his car, jumped a curb and struck the stroller Dillan was sitting in, dragging it and the infant into a vacant lot.   read more

“The idea that any business would seek to take advantage of stranded rail passengers in the wake of such a tragic event is unacceptable,” said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. The investigation is unusual for the agency, which hasn’t played a strong role in airline regulation since changes in federal law approved in the 1970s. “We have not investigated an airline for this type of conduct in at least the last 12 years, if ever,” said a department spokeswoman.   read more

The planes regularly fly low over the community, producing a loud noise. The EA-18s have been recorded producing noise at 130 decibels outside and 81 decibels inside homes. “Exposure to 140 decibels may cause immediate and permanent hearing damage or loss, as well as bleeding from the ears,” Dahr Jamail wrote at Truthout. Jamail added “the human health impacts from these levels of chronic jet noise include hearing loss, immune toxicity, insomnia, stroke, heart attacks and even death.”   read more

Judge Gee ruled that children had been held in “widespread deplorable conditions” in Border Patrol stations after being caught, and that the government had “wholly failed” to provide the “safe and sanitary” conditions. “I think this spells the beginning of the end for the Obama administration’s immigrant family detention policy,” said human rights lawyer Peter Schey. “A policy that just targets mothers with children is not rational and it’s inhumane.”   read more

Fishermen revealed horror stories of crew members being dumped overboard and defiant ones being killed, sometimes by having their heads cut off. “Life at sea is cheap,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch, Asia. The FDA had found Songkla’s Thailand facilities to have unsanitary conditions that produced “adulterated” seafood that is potentially “injurious to health.” The U.S. is the biggest customer of Thai fish, totaling more than $190 million last year.   read more

Children are “being taught the other ideas, the gay agenda, every day out in the world so we have to stand up and explain to them that that’s not real, that’s not proper, it’s not right,” said Farris Wilks. He and brother Dan, who made their fortunes in the West Texas fracking boom, have reportedly contributed $15 million to a super PAC supporting Cruz. The $15 million is the largest contribution so far in the 2016 race, and represents nearly half of the $38 million raised by Keep the Promise.   read more

In 2012, the Fed handed $1.637 billion in dividends to banks. It’s “a risk-free entitlement program,” wrote David Dayen. “It’s one of the many unknown ways the Fed extends special benefits to Wall Street.” But senators have now turned to the banks’ 6% dividend for a source of funding. Without any advance notice to the banking industry, they included a provision in the highway bill that would reduce the dividend to 1.5% for banks. The reduction would reap about $17 billion for the government.   read more

“Loneliness is a form of suffering in older people that is prevalent but undetected and untreated in medical practice,” said researcher Donovan. "Our work shows that loneliness, like depression, is associated with accelerated cognitive decline in older Americans." Other researchers found watching too much TV might also lower cognitive function. People who watch four or more hours of TV had a 1.5% higher risk of performing worse on cognitive tests compared with those who watched less TV.   read more

At the start of this decade, North Carolina’s voting laws were a model of inclusion. The state allowed 17 days of early voting, teenagers who were approaching voting age could pre-register to vote, there was same-day registration and voters could even cast ballots outside their assigned precinct. The state’s Department of Motor Vehicles was also required to contact drivers about being registered when they reported an address change.   read more

The Justice Department has apparently decided that it gets to decide if it will be investigated. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karl Thompson, who runs the Office of Legal Counsel, released a 58-page ruling (pdf) Thursday saying that inspectors general must ask for permission for access to wiretaps, grand jury and credit information.   read more