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

What about all the scaremongering, warning Americans of a terrorist attack without Section 215? In fact, the government has never provided a single instance of a terrorist plot being thwarted by that tool. So are Americans now free of NSA spying? Not at all. Section 215 was “only one of a number of largely overlapping surveillance authorities, and the loss of the current version of the law will leave the government with a range of tools that is still incredibly powerful,” reported the EFF.   read more

The statistic is based on the fact that 49 people who were not carrying a weapon were shot to death during the first 151 days of 2015. Among these victims, two-thirds were black or Hispanic. In addition to the 49 unarmed individuals, another 13 carrying toy guns were shot to death by law enforcement. The investigation also found that at least 385 people—whether armed or unarmed—were shot and killed by police nationwide during the first five months of this year, an average of more than two a day.   read more

The Federal Reserve asked 50,000 people if they could handle an unexpected “financial disruption” costing them $400. Just over half (53%) said they could “fairly easily handle such an expense.” But for 47% of respondents, $400 was a tougher problem to handle. Within this group, 14% said they simply couldn’t cover it. Another 10% would have to sell something, 13% would have to borrow money from a friend or relative and 2% would have to resort to a high-interest payday loan.   read more

Over the course of 50 years, more than 130 Nazis received social security checks after they had emigrated to the U.S. following World War II. The recipients included former Nazi officers, leaders of execution squads, and guards who served at concentration camps. Most received the payments while working at blue-collar jobs in various cities across the U.S. The SSA made the payments all within federal rules and laws in place at the time.   read more

Data compiled by the Pew Research Center shows the profession with the highest rate of unauthorized immigrants is drywall and ceiling tile installers. They comprise 34% of all Americans who work in that field. The job type with the second highest percentage is farmworkers (30%). In third place is roofers (27%), followed by maids and housekeepers (25%). Painters, along with construction and maintenance workers, rank fifth (24%).   read more

The idea that the United States is the world’s older brother, ready to take care of any bullies that show up on a street corner, is relatively recent. For the first 165 years of its existence, the United States had one such treaty, signed with France during the Revolutionary War, according to Beckley. After World War II though, organizations such as NATO, formed in the early days of the Cold War, obligated the U.S. to jump in if a member nation were to be attacked.   read more

In no case can anyone working 40 hours a week for minimum wage afford a one-bedroom apartment. Puerto Rico comes closest; there a person would have to work “only” 48 hours a week to afford a place to live. South Dakota rents require 49 hours of work and West Virginia 53. Hawaii requires the most hours, 125 at that state’s minimum wage, to afford a one-bedroom apartment.   read more

North Carolina’s Pat McCrory, a former Duke Power executive, last week vetoed two bills opposed by progressives. One was an “ag-gag” bill, which would have blocked workers from recording video or sound with the intention of reporting abuses and violations. McCrory’s other veto scuttled a law that would have allowed magistrates in that state to decline to perform same-sex marriages.   read more

Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal once supported Common Core educational standards. He subsequently signed into law legislation instituting the Common Core standards in his state. Now, since he’s running for president and Common Core standards are opposed by the Tea Party wing of the GOP, Jindal has changed his tune—so dramatically, in fact, that he’s suing the federal Department of Education, claiming Washington is imposing the standards on his state.   read more

From 2005 to 2007, Smith also worked for the Clinton Global Initiative, the organization founded by former President Clinton. Smith joined the Obama administration in 2009 as special assistant to the president and senior director for development and democracy on the National Security Council staff, with responsibility for global development, democracy, and humanitarian assistance issues. She is a longtime associate of Susan Rice, Obama’s national security advisor.   read more

Cuba was placed on that list in 1982 when it was supporting guerilla movements in South America. That support has long-since ceased, but the Castro administration remained on the list until now, when a 45-day period for Congress to review the plan ended. Cuba is still subject to an economic and travel embargo, so the only practical effect might be that the Havana government might find it easier to do business with U.S. companies in deals that are authorized.   read more

Meat is responsible for the highest water use, mostly because of the amount of feed that goes into an animal before it’s ready for slaughter. It takes 86 gallons of water to produce 1.75 ounces of beef, or just slightly more than the amount of meat in a small McDonald’s hamburger.   read more

The Environmental Integrity Project says it obtained emails revealing that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) privately told members of the Association of Electric Companies of Texas, the state’s electric power trade association, they could release air pollutants above what is acceptable under the federal Clean Air Act during the startup, shutdown, and maintenance of coal plants.   read more

In November 2007, Volz took over as NASA’s associate director for flight programs in its earth science division. He managed all of NASA’s earth science programs, including all the satellites devoted to that field. Volz became the Commerce Department’s assistant administrator in charge of the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) on November 2, 2014.   read more

Sobeck was made deputy assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division in 1999, a position she held for 10 years. Sobeck transferred to the Interior Department in 2009 as deputy assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks and served for a time as acting assistant secretary.   read more

A South Carolina town trying to replace memorials that segregate the war dead into “white” and “colored” soldiers is being stymied by a state law forbidding such monuments from being changed. “Plaintiffs believe the racially segregated plaques of the earlier wars are tragic reflections of former times and no longer legitimate,” the complaint says. Mayor Adams countered: “It’s a huge overreach...to tell a group of great Americans what they can or cannot do with a monument they paid for.”   read more