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 Navy has decided the special fund created just to launch new subs now can be used to build new aircraft carriers, too. The Navy is already spending more money every year through its regular budget of $130 billion than either China or Russia does on their entire armed forces, according to POGO’s Jacob Marx. But the Navy wants to pay for its 12 new SSBN(X) ballistic missile subs outside regular funding channels.   read more

“Because the entire file has been kept secret, it’s not possible to know why Roberts, who is the chief judge of the D.C. circuit, has let Zubaydah’s case languish,” ProPublica reported. “But this much is clear: Keeping Zubaydah from telling his story is exactly what the CIA wanted from the moment it began to torture him." According to a CIA cable, the tortured and waterboarded Zubaydah is supposed to “remain in isolation and incommunicado for the remainder of his life.”   read more

Two whistleblowers who worked for DaVita renal clinics in Georgia accused DaVita of dumping renal care supplements down drains so it could overcharge Medicare and Medicaid. The judge said the company at least led the plaintiffs astray by not correcting the false testimony and at worst “purposely manipulated the evidence and witnesses to hide the truth from the (plaintiffs) and the court.” The whistleblowers will share in a quarter to a third of the $495 million settlement.   read more

Petraeus, who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan before running the CIA, fell from grace when he was caught giving diplomatic and military secrets to his biographer and then-lover, Paula Broadwell. A coalition of media groups has now asked the judge in the case to release his written reasons for the punishment. Petreaus’ attorney has agreed to turn over a media-requested sentencing memo, but wants one sentence blacked out. It’s unknown what the sentence says.   read more

The Obama administration has approved another request from Shell to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean. Environmentalists object, saying an oil spill in the oft-frozen waters could result in an ecological tragedy that could exceed the 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. “Not only does it put the Arctic’s pristine landscapes at a huge risk for oil spills...but it’s utterly incompatible with President Obama’s rhetoric to address the climate crisis,” said the Center for Biological Diversity.   read more

Pew researchers found the decline in Christian affiliation is particularly pronounced among young adults, but is occurring among all ages. The median age of unaffiliated adults is 36, down two years from 2007. Those in the West are most likely to be unaffiliated, at 28%. Twenty-five percent of Northeasterners, 22% of Midwesterners and 19% of Southerners also said they were unaffiliated. The decline was most pronounced among mainline Protestants and Catholics, each of which saw about a 3% drop.   read more

During his first two years as governor, Christie blew nearly $83,000 on food and beverages at MetLife Stadium, presumably to wine-and-dine friends and allies at NFL football games. But it’s unclear where a lot of Christie’s food allowance spending went because his office refused to disclose more details. “While Christie returns surplus funds to the state each year, Treasury officials say he does not submit receipts or accounting for the public monies he spends,” Mark Lagerkvist reported.   read more

There’s one thing Republican and Democratic candidates for office can agree on—a trip to New York can fatten a campaign war chest. During the 2014 election, Democrats raised $18.9 million from donors in New York City, while GOP politicians pulled in $11.8 million. Washington, D.C., was the next most generous source of money for members of both parties. From there, candidates go their separate ways. Democrats head to Los Angeles, while Republicans saddle up for Texas.   read more

Lead plaintiff Valerie Simo says she would not have purchased tickets and memberships to the park if she had known that SeaWorld mistreats its killer whales by housing them in small tanks, giving them pharmaceutical drugs and depriving them of food. “This illusion masks the ugly truth about the unhealthy and despairing lives of these whales," the complaint states. The suit is one of a series of similar cases filed by those who have visited SeaWorld parks.   read more

Using a NASA radar detector known as FINDER, rescue workers were able to locate two survivors in a collapsed textile factory and two others in a building in Chautara. FINDER, which is about the size of a suitcase, detected the people’s heartbeats even though their bodies were buried under 10 feet of debris, including brick, mud and wood. JPL said tests of FINDER have shown it can identify breathing and heartbeats through 30 feet of rubble or 20 feet of solid concrete.   read more

Bringing minorities into the ranks of law enforcement in Texas has been slow to come. “In many communities, the face of law enforcement doesn’t look much different than it did before the Civil Rights Movement,” said the Dallas Morning News. In the city of Waco, whites make up 45% of the population but 80% of the police force. It was also found that almost one out of seven minorities in Texas live in a community with at least a 30-point gap between white police officers and white residents.   read more

In Arkansas, a person can work as a police officer for nine months without any training. In order for a would-be officer to use a gun, he only has to pass a 50-round test that requires hitting a target 80% of the time from 25 yards away. “To grant people arrest powers, and arm them with guns, without putting them through the proper training first is especially disturbing...when the nation has been gripped by one high-profile officer-involved shooting after another,” wrote Neyfakh.   read more

Environmentalists contend the bill is unnecessary because border officials already are able to travel onto protected federal lands. “The Border Patrol has not asked for this authority,” said Randy Serraglio. “They have full access to public lands and are working with land managers to enhance border security efforts while minimizing impacts to those lands. For someone who purports to represent the state of Arizona, Senator McCain seems remarkably ignorant about what’s really going on here.”   read more

Pot operators find themselves paying as much as a 70% tax on their profits, compared to about 30% for “normal” businesses, because they can’t deduct things like rent, employee salaries or utility bills. One business that oversees the operation of five marijuana shops in Colorado cost owner Bruce Nassau $275,000 in taxes. Another marijuana dispensary owner, who brought in $1.7 million in revenue last year, got hit with a federal tax bill for $866,000.   read more

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the NSA’s bulk phone data program is illegal. The government has argued that Section 215 of the Patriot Act authorized the agency to gather and store for up to five years the phone call records of Americans. Judge Gerard E. Lynch wrote: “Such expansive development of government repositories of formerly private records would be an unprecedented contraction of the privacy expectations of all Americans."   read more

Agriculture accounts for 80% of California's water use. California is the sole producer (generating 99% or more) in the United States for the following: almonds, artichokes, dates, figs, raisins, kiwifruit, olives, Clingstone peaches (the kind preferred for salads or fresh snacks), pistachios, dried plums, pomegranates, sweet rice and walnuts. California also accounts for 94% of broccoli and fresh plums and it leads the nation in producing American Pima cotton, which is used in clothing.   read more