Trump said, “We need people to be afraid. Right now many Americans are surprised when protestors are killed, but they’ll get used to it.” Trump did add one suggestion: “Try not to kill white people. That gets too much attention. Stick to protestors of other colors.”   read more

Clinton has spent decades, both in her own career and as First Lady during Bill Clinton’s presidency, forging strong relationships with financial industry executives. She has maintained these ties despite recent efforts to portray herself as a populist candidate. Of the six most generous donors to her political career, four are Wall Street firms: Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley. A fifth is DLA Piper, a law firm that represents big banks.   read more

A federal appeals court has ruled that law enforcement agencies may access tracking information on cell phones without a warrant. In a 9-2 vote, the court said that mobile phone users should have no expectation of privacy. “Cell users know that they must transmit signals to cell towers within range..." Judge Frank Hull wrote.   read more

How did Lockheed Martin and other huge corporations such as Boeing and General Dynamics qualify for contracts set aside for businesses of that size? At least partly due to the misconception that a small business acquired by a giant corporation may keep its status for several years. That misconception starts at the top.   read more

The United States, alone among developed nations, requires its citizens and permanent residents to file tax returns regardless of where they live or where their income is earned. Such returns became more essential last year, when the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act went into effect. That law requires foreign financial institutions to report account information for U.S. citizens and permanent residents to the U.S. government.   read more

An investigation of Ohio universities by an investigative reporting class at the University of Cincinnati found that many of their fellow students had no idea that a portion of their fees went to subsidizing college athletics. Academic spending per student dropped 24% at Cincinnati from 2005 to 2013. Meanwhile, the school is spending $86 million to renovate its football stadium.   read more

The closure of mental hospitals four decades ago was supposed to have been accompanied by increased funding for community-based care. Most of the money was never appropriated, leaving many of the mentally ill on the streets, where police deal with the symptoms of the problem without being able to provide a cure. Studies have shown that those with mental health issues can be kept out of jails if they’re monitored.   read more

The Pentagon inspector general’s office is about to release a report that some members of the armed services and civilian workers had charges made at casinos and at businesses offering escort services in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. A Pentagon official told Politico that it’s possible the department may not have paid the charges because those issued DoD credit cards pay their monthly bills and then request reimbursement.   read more

Chicago is a diverse city with a population is almost evenly divided between African-Americans (33%), whites (32%) and Latinos (29%). But Chicago’s neighborhoods are highly segregated, according to Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com. His analysis shows that while the city as a whole is diverse, the average resident is much less likely to live in a neighborhood with members of another ethnic group, with only 36% likely to do so.   read more

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) revealed heavy alcohol use within the previous month among full-time employees was most likely to occur among miners, with 17.5% having done so, followed by those in construction, accommodations and food service, arts, entertainment and recreation, and utilities industries. Health care and social assistance workers were least likely to be heavy drinkers, with only 4.4% of those workers doing so in the previous month.   read more

Toktogulov began working for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones News Service in the region, and he covered the overthrow of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April 2010. In 2011, Toktogulov began serving as press secretary to Kyrgyzstan’s prime minister, Almazbek Atambayev. When Atambayev won election in October 2011, Toktogulov returned to being his press secretary. He held that job until late 2014, when he was appointed to the Washington position.   read more

The U.S. underwent its first Universal Periodic Review by the UN Human Rights Council in 2010. After the review, the government accepted 171 recommendations. Five years later, the U.S. has followed through on none of those recommendation, according to Human Rights Watch. “At the UN rights review, the U.S. has been strong on process and short on substance,” according to Antonio Ginatta, HRW’s U.S. advocacy director.   read more

A bill introduced by Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona that would allow Customs and Border Protection “access to federal lands for security activities” was passed out of committee this week. The change would allow the Border Patrol to roam on 10 million acres of federal lands and parks in Arizona and California and even construct radio towers in areas where no development is currently allowed.   read more

Financial institutions don't appear to be afraid of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency has “a dysfunctional bureaucracy” whose roots go back to congressional decisions, according to James Angel, a Georgetown University professor who specializes in financial regulation. “It will take more than one chair to turn things around,” Angel said.   read more

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s rules say that senators can meet in closed session only if there is a formal motion during open session to move to close session, that the motion is seconded and it is voted on immediately while the committee is still in open session. But on April 23, when the committee shuttered its meeting to the press and public to discuss the current National Defense Authorization Act, the vote to move into closed session was held during closed session.   read more

The Nazis weren’t the only ones stealing historic works of art during World War II. American soldiers also looted artwork, albeit on a much smaller scale. Now five of those pieces have been returned to the owner or their heirs, with another being returned from a Paris museum.   read more

The term “digital native” is somewhat vague, but means basically someone who has always lived in a world with the Internet. That would make digital natives no older than 30 or so. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has ruled against companies who advertise for “recent graduates” and “young blood.” Now the EEOC is faced with deciding whether a posting for a digital native similarly discriminates against that class.   read more