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 three-minute video shows workers on a slaughter line and at a farm location. There is no gentle way to describe the process of killing chickens, hung upside in shackles on a crowded moving contraption that slices off their heads on their way to further hacking and preparation. But that’s the process signed off on by American Humane Association, which inked an agreement with Foster Farms in 2013 to certify that its chickens aren’t abused.   read more

A report from the Congressional Budget Office outlines the effects that an appeal would have. Fourteen million Americans would lose coverage through Medicaid and 18 million fewer would have insurance through the federal exchanges. That would be partly offset by 8 million more people who would be insured through their employers.   read more

Introduced in the U.S. in 1898, the ballot initiative was a response by progressives to the view that state legislatures were in the pocket of powerful corporate interests. But the ballot measure, it would seem, has now been hijacked by big-money interests for the benefit of big business. During the 2014 election, these special interests and election professionals were collectively paid at least $400 million for 85 statewide measures. And that’s during an “off year.”   read more

McCain had had enough of this process last year when he found out the Navy’s new aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, went $2.4 billion over budget—and he couldn’t get an answer out of the chief of naval operations as to who was responsible for the problem.   read more

Union Pacific Railroad has sold rights to 1,871 miles of oil pipelines along rail lines in six states—California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Oregon—according to the complaint. But the Terrys claim Union Pacific should never have been allowed to sell the rights. The plaintiffs want the court to establish that the easements allow railroads to use land under the tracks only for purposes directly related to the railroad.   read more

“Sooner or later every case must come to an end,” Judge Neil Gorsuch wrote in the opinion. “After all, that’s why people bring their disputes to court in the first place: because the legal system promises to resolve their differences without resort to violence...it’s pretty surprising when a state and several of its counties need a reminder.”   read more

Earthquakes associated with injection wells have “skyrocketed from a handful per year in the 1970s to more than 650 in 2014,” the university reported. Researchers found that “high-rate” injection wells were most often associated with quakes. These high-rate wells pump in excess of 300,000 barrels of wastewater into the ground per month. "We think the evidence is convincing that the earthquakes we are seeing near injection sites are induced by oil and gas activity," said researcher Weingarten.   read more

The staff was allegedly made to transfer the chemicals into non-descript bottles that bore no warning labels. The complaint says Marriott not only required housekeepers to use the hazardous chemicals, but also denied they were dangerous and threatened to fire anyone who complained about them. Housekeepers who did not speak English were forced to sign documents they didn’t understand, including liability waivers, which the housekeepers were told they had to sign under threat of termination.   read more

Science instructors shouldn't worry that the artificial rats would not measure up to the real deal. NecropSynth says its 3-D animals would have “layers so that they feel like real tissue,” and simulate bones and muscles. Hollow conduits with colored gel would represent the vascular and nervous systems. More importantly, NecropSynth believes that its process could potentially save the lives of the 6 million to 12 million animals that are killed annually for use in biology classes.   read more

Some say it’s because police fear for their jobs if they’re caught abusing a suspect, but some police have displayed a more defiant attitude about the slowdown. Those who complain about police “are going to get the police force they want, and God help them,” Lt. Victor Gearhart told the Sun.   read more

Agents interviewed Y.F. and wrote on the appropriate form that he said he was looking for work. "The impossibility of the interview, in spite of the DHS officers’ affirmations of veracity and the rule of government regularity is plain on the face of the writings themselves: Y-F- was three years old at the time he was interrogated,” the brief said.   read more

A report from Americans for Tax Fairness said Walmart had at least 78 offshore subsidiaries and branches to stash the assets where they’re not subject to U.S. corporate tax rates. The study, which used information provided by the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, said 90% of the havens were based in Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Bloomberg reported “overseas operations have helped the company cut more than $3.5 billion off its income tax bills in the past six years.”   read more

The FCC accused AT&T of misleading its customers about the company’s “unlimited” data plans. In fact, “AT&T severely slowed down the data speeds for customers with unlimited data plans and that the company failed to adequately notify its customers that they could receive speeds slower than the normal network speeds AT&T advertised,” the FCC said in a statement.   read more

The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility will be operated by the Department of Homeland Security on the campus of Kansas State University in Manhattan. It’s replacing a facility located on Plum Island, off New York’s Long Island. It was put there in 1954 because it’s far from agricultural facilities and the prevailing winds blow out to sea, and would take any outbreaks away from land. NBAF sits in the path of Tornado Alley, a large stretch of the Midwest vulnerable to violent storms.   read more

The 2002 case accuses Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III of ordering authorities to detain hundreds of people, mostly Muslim men, who were rounded up for immigration violations and questioned. The Department of Justice’s inspector general said the government didn’t distinguish for the most part between genuine suspects and Muslim immigrants with minor visa violations. The reports also documented widespread abuse at the detention center.   read more

Nine years ago, a white boa constrictor named Lucy or Diamond Princess was smuggled from Brazil’s Niterói Zoo by Jeremy Stone, a collector, breeder and seller of reptiles. Lucy wound up in Utah, where she had eight offspring while kept by Stone. Stone was able to sell Lucy’s offspring for tens of thousands of dollars. The Federal Bureau of Investigation eventually seized eight snakes, while federal prosecutors charged Stone with unlawfully transporting wildlife in the U.S.   read more