The majority of voters did not vote for Donald Trump for president; the majority of voters did not vote for Republican candidates for the Senate; and fewer than 51% of voters cast their ballots for Republican candidates for the House of Representatives. The Republican Party now controls the White House, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court, no matter how that came to be. I believe it is worth bearing in mind that a majority of U.S. citizens did not support the Republican winners.   read more

Some experts wonder if the Arctic Ocean will really be free enough of ice in just two years to allow for the unusual competition. “Although end-of-summer ice conditions in the Amundsen route of the Northwest Passage (the route they would take) have become milder over the past decade, ice conditions have been, and will remain, highly variable,” said Mark Serreze. “At the end of summer 2017 the route might be more-or-less completely ice free. [Or] it may be choked with ice."   read more

Soltan was working as a journalist translator covering the protests and was shot in the arm during a 2013 demonstration. For the past year, he has been on a hunger strike to protest his arrest and detention. Thousands of Egyptians are in prison for opposing the military-backed government, which has been accused of vast human rights abuses. The verdict comes in the wake of Obama releasing hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid for Egypt despite the lack of democratic reforms.   read more

The VA had been warned about cost overruns by contracting officials and even its contractor, Kiewit-Turner. “I must beg you once again that we re-think our strategies...” wrote the VA's Adelino Gorospe Jr. in an email. “Without a change in strategy, my estimate would be around half a billion dollars in total cost overrun: $500 Million! That’s how risky this type of contract is. Another reality check! Where in this economy are you going to find the money?”   read more

A new report from the National Employment Law Project says a majority of these two minority groups make less than $15 an hour. For Latinos the percentage is 59.5%, for African-Americans it’s 54.1%. The numbers are in stark contrast to those for white workers, nearly 64% of whom make more than $15 an hour. Black and Latino workers are heavily concentrated in the industries, such as food service and home health care, which pay the least.   read more

“In killing and maiming unarmed civilians, these defendants acted unreasonably and without justification,” said the U.S. attorney's office. “The sheer amount of unnecessary human loss and suffering attributable to the defendants’ criminal conduct...is staggering.” Judge Lamberth said their actions "can just not be condoned by a court." Said defendant Slatten to the judge: "The verdict is wrong. You know I am innocent."   read more

“If a person is not going to run for office, this money shouldn’t be able to sit around forever,” said Takano. So far he has not garnered a single coauthor for his bill. Former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, who left office after 2010, still has nearly $10 million in his old campaign account. Disgraced Rep. Mark Foley (R-Florida), who stepped down in 2006 after being caught sending sexually explicit messages to male congressional pages, still had more than $1.2 million left in his account.   read more

When corporations underpay their workers, the government must step in to keep low-income individuals from slipping even further into poverty. Meanwhile, these companies are raking in enormous profits as a result of keeping their labor costs down. “The low-wage business model practiced by many of the largest and most profitable employers in the country not only leaves many working families unable to afford the basics, but also imposes significant costs on the public," said Sarah Leberstein.   read more

It was Attorney General Holder who urged the White House to try a different strategy. While the Pentagon and the CIA had urged that Farekh be killed, Holder “was skeptical of the intelligence dossier on Mr. Farekh, questioning whether he posed an imminent threat to the United States and whether he was as significant a player in Al Qaeda as the Pentagon and the C.I.A. described," said the Times. And so the Texas-born Farekh was arrested last year in Pakistan and will stand trial in Brooklyn.   read more

In New York City, a light projection group—the Illuminator Art Collective—lit up a hologram of whistleblower Edward Snowden atop a column in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn. The likeness of the former NSA contractor was projected to replace an actual four-foot-tall, 100-pound bust of Snowden that was taken down by authorities. “To me it's about, if someone removes the statue, that the idea and the conversation can still take place, even though that material structure is gone,” said Grayson Earle.   read more

Melissa Sickmund, director of the National Center for Juvenile Justice, said that putting juveniles behind bars is a mistake. “If you’re detaining the kid — unless they are really a threat to the community — it may be causing more harm than good, it may be putting them in the presence of other bad actors who are worse than them and they just learn bad stuff,” she told the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. “We could be traumatizing them, and it doesn’t help and it’s expensive.”   read more

The incident began in 2010 when Lakeland Eye Clinic hired a new employee named Michael Branson. Six months into his employment, Branson began appearing at work wearing makeup and women’s clothing, saying he was transitioning and should be called Brandi. The company terminated Branson, claiming the position was being eliminated. But Lakeland Eye Clinic then hired a replacement for Branson two weeks later. The EEOC settled its case against the Florida health clinic for $150,000.   read more

State Department officials say there are no plans to rescue Americans in Yemen. An official told McClatchy. “Sending in military assets, even for an evacuation operation, could put U.S. citizen lives at greater risk.” Other countries have rescued their citizens though. India, for instance, was able to move about 5,600 people, including almost a thousand from 41 other nations, out of Yemen. China, Russia and Ethiopia also evacuated their citizens.   read more

The police killing of a South Carolina man has brought attention to the use of traffic stops, particularly of black men, as an excuse to investigate drivers and vehicles. Unlike routine safety-related traffic stops, such as those for speeding or driving erratically, investigatory stops are often for minor equipment-related matters, but can lead to vehicle searches, interrogations of motorists and sometimes arrests. Research has shown that black men are overwhelmingly the targets of such stops.   read more

The bill would grant asylum to up to 500 families a year who come to the United States because they can’t homeschool their children in their home countries. Many of these families come from Germany and Sweden, where children must attend regular schools. “The Republicans have put homeschooling as a priority for asylum in the United States ahead of murder, rape, child abuse,” Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Illinois) told McClatchy.   read more

Although Puerto Rico is an American territory, the predominant language there is Spanish. This fact appears to have been lost on the Social Security Administration (SSA), which has declared some Puerto Ricans who don’t speak English to be disabled for the purpose of receiving government payments.SSA’s inspector general found 218 cases in Puerto Rico from 2011 to 2013 in which disability status had been given to those because of their limited English skills.   read more

When you buy something, you’d like to keep it as long as it’s useful to you. With videogames, however, you get to keep them only as long as the manufacturer lets you. Game manufacturers often cut off server access for games they no longer want to support. stuck in legal limbo by server shutdowns are groups such as the Internet Archive, museums like Oakland, California’s Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment, and researchers who study video games as a cultural and historical medium.   read more