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

The church has not used marijuana in its services yet, but “there’s going to come a time, baby,” said Levin. The church has a long road before its members will be able to take part in the sacrament of smoking marijuana. Attorneys say it will have to prove it’s an actual religious belief that requires the use of marijuana, but anti-drug laws may still apply. It’s unclear whether the same scrutiny was to be applied to business owners claiming the right to discriminate against LGBT customers.   read more

Under Pope’s leadership, the FLRA has gone from being rated as one of the worst places to work in the federal government to one of the best. In 2010 the Partnership for Public Service and the American University Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation recognized the FLRA as the “most-improved” small agency.   read more

In 2009, she worked with multilateral organizations as economic counselor to the U.S. mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. Tamlyn was sent to Lisbon in 2011 as the deputy chief of mission in the U.S. embassy in Portugal and returned to the State Department in Washington in 2013 as director of the Office for the Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan.   read more

Some Republicans objected to the anti-Confederate flag measures, prompting Rep. Ken Calvert's amendment that would largely undo them. “After the murder of nine black parishioners, I never thought that the U.S. House of Representatives would join those who would want to see this flag flown by passing an amendment to ensure” its continued flying, McCollum said. “For House Republicans it appears the cost of getting the votes...is to literally wrap themselves in this banner of racism."   read more

Cox has helped Caddo become one of the leading users of the death penalty. “From 2010 to 2014, more people were sentenced to death per capita here than in any other county in the United States, among counties with four or more death sentences in that time period,” said the Times. During this span, Cox secured more than a third of Louisiana’s death sentences. The Catholic has come to see executions as a legitimate way to get back at murderers. “Retribution is a valid societal interest,” he said.   read more

PEER's Jeff Ruch accused Engler of “spending taxpayer money like a drunken sailor. He is assembling a mercenary force paid to do his only bidding,” CSB has limited discretionary funds to support its mission—preventing chemical accidents and investigating their causes. A large amount of those funds have been diverted to pay for the legal and consulting contracts awarded by Engler. “These...maneuvers have set the Chemical Safety Board on a course to tear itself apart," said Ruch.   read more

The presence of asbestos in the crayons and kits is “scary,” according to EWG, because “a child exposed to asbestos is 3.5 [times] more likely than a 25-year-old to develop mesothelioma, a lung disease, that is only caused by asbestos, because of the long lag time between exposure and diagnosis. In the case of the crime scene kits, people could inhale airborne asbestos fibers” due to the fact the kits use powders that children are instructed to remove by blowing on it.   read more

The Native Americans led by Amanda Blackhorse started their challenge nine years ago to nullify a total of five team-name trademarks and one related to its cheerleaders, the Redskinettes. Blackhorse’s attorney called the judge’s ruling “a huge victory” and a “watershed event.” However, he said the legal fight probably is not over. “The team has been fighting this case so hard...and scorching every square inch of earth that it's hard to imagine they will not appeal,” he said.   read more

The use of renewable energy in the U.S. has reached levels not seen in more than 80 years. Last year, 9.8% of the nation’s energy consumption was supplied by renewable sources, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Transportation now uses 13% of all renewable domestically. Energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass have been expanding in use since the beginning of this century by an average of 5% per year. Hydroelectricity is still the largest source of renewable energy.   read more

Fallin’s actions prompted questions about whether she would refuse a court order to remove the monument. A gubernatorial spokesman said it was too early to answer that. “The Supreme Court did not give any leeway in their opinion," said ACLU's Ryan Kiesel. "The bipartisan, seven-member majority did not say remove the monument except if you look into your crystal ball and think the law might allow it at some point in the future and go ahead and keep it. The court said: Remove the monument.”   read more

The agency, which represents irrigators in the Klamath River Basin, was supposed to use some of the money to pay for a feasibility study examining the effects on fish and wildlife of farmers using groundwater instead of river water. Instead, the money was spent by the agency to supply farmers with groundwater during the drought. PEER Senior Counsel Paula Dinerstein said the money “became a kind of slush fund for this irrigation agency. It’s not benefiting the fish or the wildlife.”   read more

“The smoke from these fires has risen above 20,000 feet, and the jet stream has been acting like a highway and transporting that smoke all across the country,” said meteorologist Dustin Bonk. The biggest impact has been in Minnesota, where the air quality has been compared to that in areas of heavy pollution such as Beijing. Minnesota’s state Pollution Control Agency reported that “fine particle levels had reached unhealthy levels in a diagonal band across the state.”   read more

Tribe chairwoman Cecile Hansen criticized the agency’s decision, saying “we have again been denied our rightful place in the history of Seattle.” The tribe’s existence goes back 8,000 years in the Puget Sound region. “Shame on the Bureau of Indian Affairs!” Hansen said in a statement. The decision could cost tribal members important benefits, like subsidized housing, education, health care and the opportunity to open a casino.   read more

Senate Republicans are on pace to confirm the fewest federal judges since Nixon was president in 1969. Since the GOP and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took over the Senate, not a single circuit court nominee has been approved. Republicans are hoping they’ll have one of their own making nominations after the 2016 elections. That means, od course, that the nominees won’t come down the pike until a few years from now. "Republicans are hoping [for] a lot of vacancies...to fill,” said Paul Gordon.   read more

Holder will make at least seven figures at Covington & Burling. In addition, it will be a kind of Justice Department reunion for him. His former enforcement chief, Lanny Breuer, decamped for the firm in 2013. Breuer’s company biography states that “he specializes in helping clients navigate financial fraud investigations, anti-corruption [and] money laundering investigations, securities enforcement actions, cybercrime . . .” Just the kinds of crimes that often weren’t pursued under Holder.   read more

“What this shows us is that, in the context of a growing crisis that we all recognize in criminal justice in this country, we have a system where incredible power and discretion is concentrated in the hands of one demographic group,” lead author Brenda Carter told the Times. In 14 states, all the elected prosecutors are white. The study also found that 66% of states that elect prosecutors have no blacks in these offices. Latinos are also grossly underrepresented.   read more