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 problem with using ICAO regulations as a model, say critics, is ICAO is too cozy with the industry and likely to produce weak rules. "Airplane carbon pollution is skyrocketing, but the EPA is still dodging responsibility,” said attorney Vera Pardee. “Passing the buck to an international organization that’s virtually run by the airline industry won’t protect our planet from these rapidly growing emissions.” Some urge the EPA to adopt standards now and let the ICAO use them as a model.   read more

“It’s staggering,” said Dr. Matthew Miller, an epidemiologist and suicide expert at Northeastern University. “We have to come to grips with why the rates are so obscenely high.” Researchers can’t say for sure why female veterans have such a high suicide rate. One reason might be that women who join the military might disproportionately have a higher risk of suicide, or that sexual assaults and other traumatic experience might come into play, the Times’ Alan Zarembo wrote.   read more

Under his leadership, the Library of Congress has been criticized in more than a dozen government reports for poor management and technology failures that have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars. Billington has been criticized for making only a small fraction of the library’s 24 million books available online. “There is a general sense of relief, hope and renewal, all rolled into one feeling,” said one staffer about the news. “Like a great weight has been lifted from our shoulders.”   read more

The Justice Dept. is going after foreign terrorists and criminals even though they have little or no connection with the U.S. This may continue as long as Loretta Lynch is U.S. Attorney General. "No federal prosecutor was more aggressive about expanding her office’s global reach than Ms. Lynch when she was the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn,” the Times wrote. The U.S. has turned itself into “the jailer, the military front and now the prosecutor” of global crimes, said CNS's Karen Greenberg.   read more

The IG probes were previously kept hidden unless the matter was so serious that the department prosecuted those involved and a federal judge authorized the release of the records. Crafted by Justice Dept. IG Michael Horowitz, the new policy is already paying off. The IG released a report on a U.S. Marshal involved in “intimate personal relationships” with subordinates. The marshal has retired. Horowitz may next push for expanding the policy to other federal departments.   read more

Coal companies and officials from 14 states filed a lawsuit to stop the EPA from adopting its plan to limit the production of greenhouse gases from power plants. “But EPA has not yet issued a final rule," wrote Judge Brett Kavanaugh in his opinion. "It has issued only a proposed rule. Petitioners nonetheless ask the court to jump into the fray now. They want us to do something that they candidly acknowledge we have never done before: review the legality of a proposed rule.”   read more

Most people know Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and perhaps Bernie Sanders. Those who consider themselves savvy political observers might also be proud that they know Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee. But to be a true political junkie, you should know of a few others hoping to win the White House next year. Such as performance artist Vermin Supreme. He’s trying to promote “zombie apocalypse awareness” and promises to give every American a free pony.   read more

“The new National Water Center will help us create a safer, more secure, weather-ready nation,” said Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. "Measuring, managing, and planning for water is complex, and the need for a more integrated approach has never been greater. Through this center, we will work with our partners in the federal government, community leaders nationwide, and the University of Alabama to deliver solutions to one of our most pressing environmental challenges.”   read more

A Reuters investigation has shown that Peabody does not have the financial resources to self-bond. That means if the world’s largest private coal company goes belly up, the federal government would have to step in and help pay to clean up Peabody’s mines, which would cost about $1.38 billion. Peabody has not filed for bankruptcy, but posted losses of $700 million last year. This week it announced it will soon let go of 250 employees and shut down two of its operations in Indiana and Wyoming.   read more

A new study has found that some Medicare Advantage plans make their patients seem sicker than they are in order to overbill the federal government to the tune of $2 billion a year. Enrollees have 6% to 16% higher diagnosis-based risk scores than they would have had if they were in traditional Medicare. As a result, the plans are more profitable for the insurance companies and the extra money allows them to offer more benefits, making them more attractive than regular Medicare.   read more

Sen Chuck Grassley said there were “serious questions” about the agency's leadership, including nepotism allegations, punishment of whistleblowers and possibly mishandling of funds. The senator said he would continue to investigate the Marshal Service despite Hylton’s departure. His actions prompted the Justice Department Inspector General to open its own investigation last month. The agency's surveillance methods, which have swept up Americans' phone calls, have also been under scrutiny.   read more

“The lawsuit, which seeks no monetary damages, is described by the [suit] as an attempt to break through the secrecy surrounding drone strikes," said the Times. The plaintiffs referenced President Obama’s recent revelation that a U.S. strike in Pakistan had accidentally killed an American and an Italian hostage. “The president has now admitted to killing innocent Americans and Italians with drones," says the suit. "Why are the bereaved families of innocent Yemenis less entitled to the truth?”   read more

About 55,000 Chinese took the SAT in 2014. The total “reflects an increasingly international view of education for Chinese young people, not to mention their parents.” The test is so popular in China that new anti-cheating measures have been instituted. In recent weeks, 23 students were arrested for cheating, some of whom used transmission devices to get answers remotely. To catch them, teachers have been using silent drones to fly around the classrooms monitoring transmission signals   read more

The North Carolina legislature has overridden a veto of an "ag-gag" law that will allow businesses to sue employees who report illegal or unethical corporate behavior. Republican Governor Pat McCrory vetoed the bill that provided for businesses to pursue civil charges against employees who photograph, shoot video or steal data or documents, even if the intent is to expose wrongdoing. McCrory said the legislation would discourage employees who witness illegal activity from reporting it.   read more

The promise of conservative tax policies—that tax cuts would produce more revenue for states because more people would be working—has not panned out as some Republican politicians had hoped, leaving them confronted with state budget gaps and tough choices for closing them. Some more moderate Republican legislators are trying to get conservative governors to go along with some tax increases.   read more

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled last week that the U.S. Postal Service's emergency price increase of 4.3%, in place since January 2014, cannot last forever. The increase raised the price of stamps from 46 cents to 49 cents. The increase came with a cap on how much money the USPS could recover, which is scheduled to be hit this summer. When postal officials asked to make the increase permanent, the PRC turned them down.   read more