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

Chevalier collected more than $122,000 from 1,246 backers ostensibly to fund “The Doom That Came to Atlantic City.” But instead of producing a game, he spent the money on rent and other things. For that, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) created a game of its own—“Prosecute Kickstarter Fraud” and Chevalier was the first player.   read more

One of Pfizer’s antibiotics suppliers in China, NCPC, discharges pharmaceutical waste into the environment. Generic drug company McKesson contracts with an Indian company, Aurobindo, which in turn gets drug supplies from four polluting Chinese factories. And Teva, based in Israel, deals with three Chinese companies that “have been in the Chinese media spotlight for various offenses including improper waste management and the release of noxious chemicals.”   read more

Inmates in private prisons spent 4% to 7% longer incarcerated after accounting for type of crime and length of original sentence. That amounted to 60 to 90 days longer for the average inmate. Private prisons are paid by states on a per-diem basis, meaning a set amount for each day a prisoner is incarcerated. That means the corporations running the prisons are incentivized to keep prisoners longer. This is accomplished by increasing the number of infractions per inmate.   read more

Doherty returned to Washington in 2010 as director of the State Department’s Office of European Union and Regional Affairs and in September 2011 was made deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. She went back to Rome in August 2013 as deputy chief of mission, remaining in that post until her nomination as ambassador.   read more

The Walmart manuals require that drivers must not drive within 10 hours of a previous stint. The compensation for that mandatory layover is $42, or $4.20 an hour. That’s considerably less than minimum wage. Walmart argued that the workers weren’t working during those 10 hours, but the judge cited California code that defined hours worked as “the time during which an employee is subject to the control of an employer.   read more

South Dakotans for Responsible Lending is gathering signatures to put a question on the November 2016 South Dakota ballot that would limit the interest charged by payday loan outfits to 36% per year. Payday lenders are crying foul, saying rates that low would force them out of business. The average interest rate on a South Dakota payday loan now hovers around 574%.   read more

The report listed examples of systems for which the development costs wildly exceeded the original estimates. The AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder air-to-air missile, an update of the mainstay of the Air Force and Navy for a half century, came in at 114% over estimate. The MQ-9 Reaper drone was 104% over its estimate.   read more

the war produced 149,000 fatalities in Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2001 to April 2014. Included in the figures are U.S. military personnel, non-U.S. Allied troops, contractors, Taliban, al Qaeda and other opposition fighters—as well as more than 47,000 civilians from both countries. There have been 26,270 Afghan civilians killed and 21,500 Pakistanis.   read more

On February 10, 2013, Louis W. Uccellini was made director of the National Weather Service (NWS). The appointment of Uccellini, an expert on blizzards, came shortly after Superstorm Sandy raked the Northeast. Uccellini has written extensively on weather, including co-authoring a two-volume publication, Northeast Snowstorms.   read more

CBP officer Jose Rafael Ducos Bello reported fraud and waste at his agency. He told the committee that he was subjected to so much retaliation that it affected his son, who tried to commit suicide. Michael Keegan, a former Social Security associate commissioner, said he was isolated from other workers and “confined to an empty office” after saying agency officials misled Congress about a building project. Whistleblower is “a term that has become radioactive and derogatory,” said Col. Amerine.   read more

Representatives from six South Pacific countries recently announced that they intend to sue carbon polluters for their role in causing climate change. The plaintiffs are vulnerable to rising sea levels and greater storm activity brought on by climate change. Those wanting to bring the polluters to justice face several hurdles, a big one being finding a court in which to sue. U.S. federal courts are an option, but might not work because polluters in America are covered by the Clean Air Act.   read more

The 2015 Women’s Media Center report shows that women fill only 30% to 40% of positions in the news business. Women produce only 37.3% of news in the U.S. The numbers are even worse in TV news. Women comprise only 32% of news anchors or reporters. Women are most likely to be producers, but as the prestige of a producing job increased, the likelihood of it being filled by a woman fell. On Sunday television talk shows, women comprised only 14% of those interviewed and 29% of roundtable guests.   read more

The Pew Research Center says 6.9% of U.S. adults are now multiracial, based on a survey it recently completed. That’s a much higher percentage than what the U.S. Census Bureau reported five years ago, when 2.1% reported being multiracial. Pew came up with its numbers not only by asking respondents if they considered themselves to be mixed race, but also asking what race their parents and grandparents were. Pew found that 61% of multiracial people didn’t identify themselves that way.   read more

Craig N. McLean was named January 21, 2015, to head the office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He’s responsible for the agency’s research laboratories, climate program, National Sea Grant, and ocean exploration. Beginning in April 2010, McLean was OAR’s acting assistant administrator.   read more

The survey found 68% of European respondents said they think the U.S. is likely to come to an ally’s defense. There are 56% of Americans who agree. However, "Germans, French and Italians have little inclination to come to a NATO ally’s defense,” said Pew's Bruce Stokes, “and if the next military conflict in the region is hybrid warfare, and there is some debate who these Russian-speaking fighters are, such attitudes will only further inhibit NATO’s response.”   read more

Generic drug makers and public health experts oppose this TPP provision because, they say, it will result in higher drug prices and make it harder for patients to receive needed treatments. “It was very clear to everyone except the U.S. that the initial proposal wasn’t about transparency. It was about getting market access for the pharmaceutical industry by giving them greater access to and influence over decision-making processes around pricing and reimbursement,” said Deborah Gleeson.   read more