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

Researchers on the atoll, which has been owned since 2000 by the Nature Conservancy, previously had to bring in diesel to fuel a generator to provide power, according to Ari Phillips of ClimateProgress. Including transportation costs—Palmyra is about 1,000 miles from Hawaii—the diesel ended up costing $11 to $13 a gallon. Now about 95% of the island’s energy needs are met via wind and solar energy.   read more

State legislatures have passed 282 laws restricting abortions since 2010. Fifty-one new restrictions have gone into effect this year alone. Five of them either imposed or increased time women must wait between their first contact with a clinic and their procedure. Arkansas and Tennessee now require a 48-hour wait. North Carolina and Oklahoma are forcing women to wait at least 72 hours, joining Missouri, South Dakota and Utah in requiring women to wait at least three full days for an abortion.   read more

Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana submitted a rider to a budget bill that would stop the Obama administration from ensuring that coal companies pay the proper royalties for mining on public lands. The increase is slated to happen as a result of the Interior Dept. closing a loophole that allows coal companies to sell to subsidiaries at intentionally depressed prices, which avoids royalty payments. Zinke has received almost $10,000 in contributions since 2013 from three coal company PACs.   read more

Companies providing reimbursement can be fined $100 per day, per employee under the rule. The penalty can be up to a total of $500,000, per year. “In contrast, the penalty on businesses for failing to comply with the employer mandate is only $2,000 per year,” said Michael Cohn. “It’s the biggest penalty that no one is talking about,” said NFIB's Kevin Kuhlman. “The penalty for compensating employees for healthcare-related expenses is enough to destroy most small businesses.”   read more

Hans G. Klemm was nominated on March 25, 2015, to be the next U.S. ambassador to Romania. He presented his credentials to Romanian President President Klaus Iohannis on September 21, 2015. It is the second such posting for Klemm, who previously served in Timor-Leste.   read more

It’s the third ambassadorial posting for the long-time member of his country’s foreign service and his third term in the United States. Singh’s first posting as ambassador was to Israel in April 2005. He served there until September 2008, when he returned to the United States as deputy chief of mission in the Indian embassy in Washington. Singh went to Paris in 2013 as ambassador there, a position he held until being appointed to head India’s mission in Washington.   read more

The Justice Dept. would say no more than that it is looking into potential “unlawful coordination” among some airlines, but AP believes its focus is on whether the airlines illegally communicated about their pattern of adding new flights and routes, as well as the limiting of seats, which could be used to maintain high airfares. The Justice Dept. sent letters to American, Delta, Southwest and United Airlines--which are said to control more than 80% of the seats in the domestic travel market.   read more

The Army changed its PTSD treatment policies following Bales’ case, “which shed light on the use of dangerous stimulants by soldiers in the field.” Bales’ medical records revealed he had the steroid stanozolol in his body at the time of the killings, which is known to trigger outbursts of temper. An Army investigation showed Bales had a reputation among junior enlisted men as being “paranoid,” “bipolar,” “crazy” and “racist,” but was regarded as competent and “even-keeled” by superior officers.   read more

Less than a third of all Americans claim to own a gun, with the state of Alaska leading the way in having the highest rate of gun ownership. Research published in the medical journal Injury Prevention shows that nearly 62% of residents of Alaska owns guns. No other state in the country boasts a gun ownership rate of 60% or higher. The study also determined that gun ownership is highest in locations that exhibit a strong gun culture.   read more

The research revealed that most of the referrals didn’t lead to convictions because they were never tried in court. Prosecutors turned down 235 out of the 270 total hate crime referrals, or 87%, per TRAC. More than half of the rejected cases were due to insufficient evidence, lack of evidence of criminal intent, and weak or insufficient admissible evidence. A total of 7,242 people in the U.S. were victims of reported hate crime incidents in 2013, according to the FBI.   read more

Monsanto and Dow Chemical opposed the local measure, which voters approved last November. Both companies operate farms on the island that study GMO crops. The biotech industry spent more than $7 million to defeat the measure--the most expensive political campaign in the history of the state. Mollway’s ruling did not address the substance of the ban, only the legal question of county authority. Measure co-sponsor Mark Sheehan said they will appeal the decision.   read more

In most cases, officers responded to calls from relatives or neighbors who said a mentally fragile person was behaving erratically. Many of those who were armed didn’t have firearms, but toy guns or implements that are less lethal than a gun. Also, more than 50% were killed by officers lacking in training for dealing with the mentally ill. “And in many cases, officers responded with tactics that quickly made a volatile situation even more dangerous,” said the Post.   read more

Cooper’s case is a class action involving residents from nine counties, making the litigation worth potentially millions of dollars in damages. Six houses were destroyed and 172 others were damaged when three quakes of 5.0 magnitude or greater struck the Prague area from November 5-8, 2011, according to the Oklahoma Emergency Management Agency. The oil companies argued that the Oklahoma Corporation Commission should handle the lawsuits, not the courts—a position the state Supreme Court rejected.   read more

On Tuesday, FISC Judge Michael W. Mosman rejected FreedomWorks’ challenge. Mosman also claimed that a previous ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the surveillance program was illegal, did not apply to the FISC, “setting up a potential conflict between the two courts,” according to The New York Times. “Second Circuit rulings are not binding” on the surveillance court, Mosman wrote, “and this court respectfully disagrees with that court’s analysis...”   read more

New York Mayor Bill De Blasio crafted language that was put into state legislation signed Friday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo that requires developers of high rises that have a mix of affordable units and market-rate units to allow both groups to use the same doorways. "No taxpayer dollar should go to a program that further segregates our communities," said New York councilwoman Helen Brewer.   read more

Job-hopping generally doesn’t look good on a resume. But NBA player Luke Ridnour’s CV just got a lot longer in a short period of time. In the run-up to the June 25 NBA draft and its aftermath, Ridnour was traded four times, with three of those moves coming in one day. Fortunately, Ridnour didn’t have to leave his living room during all this maneuvering, but he might have appreciated the frequent-flier miles. The key to Ridnour’s virtual journey around North America is his contract.   read more