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

Base Esperanza, controlled by Argentina and located near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, recorded a temperature of 63.5°F on March 24. That was nearly four degrees higher than the previous high for the continent. “One surprising aspect of the temperatures measured recently at Esperanza and Marambio are that they occurred in autumn, nearly three months past the usual warmest time of the year in the Antarctic Peninsula,” according to the Weather Underground.   read more

One of the emails pointed out the deteriorating security situation right before the Benghazi consulate was stormed, citing “an extremely sensitive source” who pointed out the numerous bombings and kidnapping of aid workers and diplomats by those thought to be loyal to the late Libyan Prime Minister Muammar Gaddafi. Despite the information gathered by Clinton’s network, she said after the Benghazi attacks of September 2012 that U.S. intelligence officials had had no advance warning of the threat.   read more

Until now, the Uniform Crime Report did not include hate crime data for any South Asian-American community. Instead, they were just lumped in with all Asian Americans. Supporters of the change said it was long overdue, noting that hate crimes against Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims have gone up since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.   read more

The TSA has even assigned point values to each suspicious act. Strong body odor, for example, is worth 1 point, while a cold penetrating stare rates 2 points. If a passenger appears to be in disguise, he’s assessed 3 points. Points can also be deducted for a passenger’s age, or if they appear to be traveling with a spouse. Anyone assessed 4 or 5 points is subject to further screening and 6 or more points causes a supervisor to be called.   read more

There is fraud in the system, according to the Urban Institute, but it’s not the kind that would be prevented by having a photo on the cards. Generally fraud occurs when a recipient buys food with the card and then sells it or connives with a retailer to receive cash back from a purchase, which is strictly forbidden by the regulations governing the program. In none of these scenarios would a photo on the cards stop fraud.   read more

Shulkin’s work has frequently involved looking at managed and accountable care, in which patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors. In 2008, for example, he studied why patients who are admitted at night are more likely to die than patients admitted during the day. Also in 2008 he edited the book Questions Patients Need to Ask: Getting the Best Healthcare.   read more

The new law prohibits state or local governments from substantially burdening a person’s ability to exercise their religion, which opponents say is a veiled attempt to allow religious conservatives to discriminate against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals without the state intervening. “Not only is this law unnecessary, it unfortunately has already portrayed our state as intolerant, unfriendly, and backwards” Democratic state Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane said.   read more

The reviewers concluded that there was “insufficient evidence” that adding white potatoes to the approved list would change food purchasing habits of WIC recipients, and that there was “no evidence” purchasing habits had changed since white potatoes were removed from the list in 2009. Furthermore, “The nutrient profile of white potatoes does not support their exclusion from the CVV [cash value voucher program] because their nutrient content is similar to that of other starchy vegetables."   read more

Most of the deaths came in the fighting in Gaza between July 7 and August 26. During those hostilities, 2,220 Palestinians were killed, 1,492 of them civilians, 551 of whom were children. This included 142 Palestinian families who saw three or more family members killed because of attacks on their residences. These attacks on residential buildings accounted for 742 deaths. During the Gaza fighting, 71 Israelis were killed, 66 of them soldiers.   read more

Munyenyezi was found to have “kicked off the killing frenzy there by telling the party’s devotees that all Tutsi ‘cockroaches’ must die.” According to the appeals court, “she personally inspected IDs at the checkpoint, separated those who would live from those who would die (and die gruesomely), and kept records of the ghastly going-ons.”   read more

Sutherland moved on to cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris in 2004 as counsel. In 2008 she was named a senior counsel for Philip Morris parent Altria in their client services group. She switched to government service in 2011 as chief counsel for the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, where she works as she awaits confirmation.   read more

Colombia appears to be a popular spot for R&R among federal law enforcement agents. A Justice Dept. inspector general report has disclosed that DEA agents participated in “sex parties”—in which the prostitutes were hired by Colombian drug cartels—from 2005 to 2008. The agents were also found to have allowed Colombian police officers to watch over their weapons and property during the parties. Three of the agents were also given money, expensive gifts, and weapons from drug cartel members.   read more

Investigations into chemical accidents had backlogged under his leadership and he was accused of getting in the way of the EPA’s inspector general’s investigations. Further, Moure-Eraso and two top executives were caught using personal email accounts to conduct official business. A congressional investigation concluded Moure-Eraso ruined CSB’s workplace, turning it into an “abusive, toxic and hostile” environment. Board members have left in disgust because of CSB’s “level of dysfunction.”   read more

The atomic blasts rendered the Bikini atoll uninhabitable for decades, if not centuries. That didn’t stop the U.S. government from trying to resettle the Bikinians back home in the 1980s, only to discover the island was still too “hot” for anyone to live there. Now the Bikinians have a new problem: rising sea levels brought on by global warming. The Bikini Islanders have told the Interior Department that they want to move to the U.S. permanently.   read more

Those drawing the lines packed supermajorities of black voters into those districts, diluting their votes and removing the possibility of black voters having influence in more heavily white districts. Although 26% of Alabamans are black, only 5 of 35 state senators, or 14%, are black.   read more

Matthew returned to Charleston in 2005 as director of the Historic Charleston Foundation, serving there until 2008. At that time, she rejoined the corporate world as a product manager for Blackbaud, which develops and markets fund raising and membership software for non-profit organizations. In 2014, Matthew was named chief science educator for Children’s Museum of Indianapolis   read more