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 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

An Indiana prisoner, Leon Benson, recorded a 30-second video in August 2014 thanking supporters for working to have his murder conviction overturned. Benson’s sister posted the video to Facebook, and prison officials subsequently sent the inmate to solitary confinement, canceled out his “good time” days and suspended his email privileges. The prison claimed it was merely enforcing JPay’s terms of service.   read more

Usry found himself being investigated for a cold-case murder in Idaho after an Ancestry.com-owned business, Sorenson Database, which has about 100,000 DNA samples on file, shared its database with Idaho Falls police without asking for a warrant. After matches came up, police obtained a warrant requiring Ancestry.com to provide the “protected” name of donors.   read more

Of the 3.6 million Americans who illegitimately got the credits, more than 2 million did so without filing the necessary supporting paperwork, a Form 1098-T. This group got more than $3.2 billion in education credits. Another $2.5 billion was paid to 1.6 million filers for students attending ineligible institutions.   read more

As far as Texas legislator Matt Rinaldi is concerned, his state needs to stop “Californianizing” by trying to ban plastic grocery bags. The Republican state representative has introduced legislation that would override local ordinances governing single-use plastic bags. The city of Austin prohibited the bags within its limits two years ago, while Dallas in January enacted a five-cent charge for them.   read more

The findings showed that 32% of reports of sexual assault were submitted by civilian women, who were undercounted by the Pentagon. The report also says that 21% of reports were submitted by civilian military spouses, who also weren’t sufficiently counted. Gillibrand had trouble getting even those numbers from the Defense Department. She sought four years’ worth of data from the bases, the largest in each service. After nearly a year of stonewalling, the military provided redacted data from 2013.   read more

Formaldehyde and its effects first gained national attention after Hurricane Katrina, when trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to house the storm’s survivors caused a variety of health problems. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen that can cause respiratory ailments such as asthma and possibly cancers like myeloid leukemia.   read more

Republicans are perfectly satisfied with the way the commission is working. “Congress set this place up to gridlock,” Goodman said. “This agency is functioning as Congress intended. The democracy isn’t collapsing around us.” Those who see Charles and David Koch preparing to open their wallets to the tune of $1 billion, with others giving nearly as much in the coming election, as not being a positive sign for democracy might disagree.   read more

A study of the court’s opinions, going back to 1791, included a ranking of 107 justices based on their choice of words used in opinions. It turns out five of the top 10 grumpiest justices are currently on the court. Justices Samuel Alito, Stephen Breyer, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia and were found to have used some of the most unfriendly language in their opinions in court history.   read more

Urged on by socially conservative lawmakers, Congress has again poured more money into abstinence programs that operate under the belief that teenagers won’t have sex if you just tell them it’s a bad idea. Another $25 million was appropriated last month for Title V, a federal program started in the 1990s after Republicans won control of Congress.   read more

Many of the most U.S. powerful corporations and foundations contributed $1 million or more to the Clinton Foundation while also lobbying the State Department during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. The foundation also set up a charity that may have helped some of its donors hide their contributions to the Clinton Foundation.   read more

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said the looting and attacks were the product of unidentified hoodlums, not the residents of Baltimore. But the only individuals who participated in the violence—and who are known to live outside the city, if not the state of Maryland—were Baltimore police officers. As of 2012, more than 70% of Baltimore police officers lived outside the city with about 10% living out of state, some in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.   read more

Human Rights Watch said in a new report that it uncovered video, photographs and other evidence of the Saudi air force employing cluster bombs near villages in Yemen’s northern Saada Province on two separate occasions. The group, however, did not directly link any civilian casualties to the use of the controversial ordinance, which has been banned by more than 100 countries under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.   read more

As it awaits an administration decision this month on the release of photos showing torture of terror suspects, the American Civil Liberties Union has published what it knows about the contents of the still-secret photos. As a result of its Freedom of Information Act request, the ACLU says more than a hundred documents it did receive from the government “either referenced photos related to cases of abuse or actually contained the photos, which were redacted before they got to us.”   read more