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

Daniel Poneman, the Energy Department’s second most powerful official for five years, will now become president and CEO of Centrus Energy Corp. with a salary of $1.7 million a year. “DOE has long had an improper relationship with USEC (now Centrus),” said Sen. John Barrasso. “Mr. Poneman’s appointment...only promises to make that record worse.” Said Public Citizen's Tyson Slocum, “[It’s] one of the more problematic revolving-door issues that I can remember.”   read more

Without public records laws, police exercise unilateral control over body camera footage. They are responsible for making the recordings, archiving them, and deciding which footage to release to the public and which to keep under wraps. In many cases, their decisions are final. “I think it’s a fair concern and a fair criticism that people might cherry pick and release only the ones that show them in a favorable light,” said former Charlotte, North Carolina, police chief Darrel Stephens.   read more

The Cordele Circuit, said the lawsuit, has provided only “assembly-line justice” to juveniles. “For too long, the Supreme Court’s promise of fairness for young people accused of delinquency has gone unfulfilled in courts across our country,” said Eric Holder. “Every child has the right to a competent attorney who will provide the highest level of professional guidance and advocacy. It is time for courts to adequately fund indigent defense systems for children."   read more

One biotech company offers cash to mothers to donate their extra breast milk to its lab. The company sells the human milk--which some call "white plasma"--at $180 an ounce, which means one premature baby can easily consume $10,000 worth over several weeks. But the lure of cash for milk may begin to drain the resources of milk banks, which don’t pay mothers for their contributions. Opponents say “breast milk farming” could lead greedy moms to do unscrupulous things in order to increase profits.   read more

The regulations apply only on public lands and Indian reservations under the administration of the Interior Department. Fracking on private land, where about 75% of it is done, is not affected. • Drillers will be required to encase wells in cement when groundwater supplies could be affected. • Wells must undergo pressure tests to ensure they’ll stand up to fracking without blowing out. • The use of open waste pits to contain fracking fluids will be prohibited in most circumstances.   read more

The provision of the USA Patriot Act (pdf) that allows the data collection, Section 215, is set to expire on June 1, and so far, lawmakers haven’t adopted legislation extending this authority. However, the Obama administration could continue the NSA program by drafting a legal memo authorizing the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to in turn approve the bulk collection effort until Congress does act.   read more

SPOT, whose techniques were first used in 2003 and formalized in 2007, uses “highly questionable” screening techniques, according to the ACLU complaint, while being “discriminatory, ineffective, pseudo-scientific, and wasteful of taxpayer money.” TSA has spent at least $1 billion on SPOT.   read more

Clinton used a commercial spam filtering service, MxLogic, now owned by McAfee, to monitor emails coming into her account. To be able to filter out spam, MxLogic had to be able to read the emails. Thus, anyone with access to MxLogic’s system, which could include someone from outside the company, could read emails meant for Clinton. Those emails would include communications coming from the White House and foreign governments.   read more

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) cites the failure to specifically address asbestos, deadlines for chemical review pushed far into the future, not allowing states to set tougher standards for chemical safety, and several other issues. All 17 senators who sponsored or co-sponsored the Vitter-Udall bill were among the current members of the Senate who received more than $1 million in donations from the nation’s top 10 chemical companies.   read more

Sub-critical coal-fired power stations (SCPS) emit 75% more pollutants than more technologically advanced ultra-supercritical type plants. The United States has 75% SCPS in its coal-fired portfolio. The United States has 10 companies—the most of any nation—among the top 25 in SCPS generation.   read more

• “Garner raised both his arms in the air” was changed to “Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke.” • “Use of the chokehold has been prohibited” was changed to “Use of the chokehold is legal, but has been prohibited.” • Instances of the word “chokehold” were replaced twice, once to “chokehold or headlock,” and once to “respiratory distress.”   read more

Bibler turned in a meeting summary that mentioned climate change, which is an undeniable threat to the low-lying state, and he inadvertently left the word “agenda” in the memo header, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Bibler was ordered to remove mentions of climate change and the word agenda. He sent the note back, minus “agenda” but with climate change mentions intact and with a logo that urged a stop to the Keystone XL pipeline.   read more

Despite its status as home base for the Mormon Church, Utah has passed legislation with the support of the church prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment and housing. The area may also attract LGBT people from other, less welcoming, locations in the West. The metropolitan area with the fewest who identify as LGBT is Birmingham, Alabama, at 2.6%.   read more

CD revenues fell 12% to $1.85 billion in 2014. Meanwhile, streaming services accounted for $1.87 billion in revenue, up 29% from the year before. Digital downloads from services such as iTunes were the biggest money-maker at $2.6 billion, but even that figure was down 8.5% from 2013.   read more

The U.S. system of oil pipelines has grown in size by nearly 25% over the past decade. This expansion has resulted in more than 11,600 miles of pipeline being laid, much in the western half of the country. Compare that to Keystone, which would stretch only 1,179 miles. Keystone’s oil carrying capacity would be dramatically less than what’s now flowing through many states via the new pipelines. As they expand, regulators have been almost powerless to ensure that existing pipelines are safe.   read more

Judge William Garnett said the Legal Aid Society and others did not provide sufficient reason under the law to release the transcripts. A Garner family attorney blasted Garnett’s ruling. “I think it’s unfortunate given the great deal of public interest in this case that he’s refused to provide the public access to any of the materials in the grand jury,” he said. “Secret grand juries are an anachronism. The judge has essentially sanctioned the use of a secret trial for a very public matter."   read more