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

It didn’t take long in office for Cardillo to be forced to deal with an embarrassing incident when, on January 26, 2015, an NGA employee mistakenly flew a drone onto the White House grounds. On the other hand, shortly after Cardillo took over, the NGA created a website to share images to help track the spread of Ebola in West Africa.   read more

The American public will soon find out why intelligence agencies and law enforcement have accessed census data under the guise of protecting the nation from terrorism. The details will become known once the U.S. Department of Justice releases a secret memo that covers legal interpretations of controversial Section 215 of the Patriot Act.   read more

"This program is a major DEA initiative that has the potential to track our movements around the country,” wrote ACLU's Bennett Stein. “The federal government is uniquely positioned to create a centralized repository of all drivers’ movements across the country — and the DEA seems to be moving toward doing just that. If license plate readers continue to proliferate without restriction...the agency will soon possess a detailed and invasive depiction of our lives.”   read more

An environmental group contends in a new report that a better job producer near the Eastern seaboard would be wind turbines, which could provide more employment than new drilling platforms. Oceana says offshore wind could, over the next 20 years, create nearly 91,000 more jobs than offshore drilling. Turbines also could produce more energy than drilling, over a period of two decades, which would be enough electricity for 115 million homes.   read more

The analysis revealed that 61% of the statements on Fox News were either mostly false, definitely false or “pants on fire” false. Another 18% were half true, 11% mostly true and only 10% completely true. Statements made on MSNBC and NBC news found 44% to land in the false categories. Twenty-two percent were half true, 24% mostly true and just 9% completely true. On CNN, 21% were various degrees of false, while 23% were found to be half true, 42% mostly true and 15% completely true.   read more

A Reuters examination of federal budget cuts found funding reductions were highest in “red” states like Texas and Mississippi, where grant funding saw a 40% reduction. Programs that lost funding ranged from preschool to anti-drug initiatives. In purple states like North Carolina and Ohio, where Obama’s support was more evenly split with the Republican opposition, the funding cuts were smaller—a 27% drop. Meanwhile, Obama-friendly blue states like California only saw a 22.5% drop.   read more

Emoji, also known as emoticons, have become so prevalent in electronic communications that their use is being cited as evidence in trials and arrests. In Pennsylvania, a man was convicted of threatening his wife via Facebook. In his defense, he cited his use of an emoticon indicating he was kidding. In Brooklyn, a teenager was arrested after police saw his threatening statement on Facebook, alongside emoticon images of guns. Police went to his home, where they found marijuana and a firearm.   read more

Posecutors argued Sterling was the source who helped James Risen discuss a CIA operation in his book “State of War.” “The Sterling case – especially in light of Obama’s complicity in the cover-up of torture during the Bush administration,” Dan Froomkin wrote, “sends a clear message to people in government service: You won’t get in trouble as long as you do what you’re told (even torture people). But if you tell [a reporter] something we want kept secret, we will spare no effort to destroy you.”   read more

The largest 20 frackers averaged more than 1.5 violations a day, with many racking up hundreds of violations. Some of the violations included allowing toxic chemicals to flow off drilling sites and into local soil and water; endangering drinking water through improper well construction; and dumping industrial waste into local waterways. The report noted that the numbers collected are probably on the low side.   read more

Until June, Debra Gross worked for the Housing and Urban Development at the same time she was a deputy director for an advocacy group that had interests in HUD decision making. HUD’s IG looked into the Gross case and found it created a conflict of interest. How Gross was even hired by former HUD Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing Sandra Henriquez might raise questions, but federal law permits agencies to share employees with outside organizations.   read more

The National Registry of Exonerations reported that 66 of the 125 inmates who were exonerated in 2014 were black. Since 1989, 1,536 people have been exonerated and 715 were black. “This can be attributed to the fact that there are more African-Americans in the U.S. prison system than any other race group,” said ThinkProgress. African-Americans make up only about 13% of the U.S. population at large, but about 43% of the prison population.   read more

Army Major Erik Burris, who had been responsible for supervising sexual assault cases by soldiers, was himself convicted Sunday of crimes including rape and forcible sodomy. Burris was found guilty of two counts of rape, forcible sodomy, four counts of assault, and disobeying an order from a superior officer. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, forfeiture of pay and allowances and dismissal from the Army. He had multiple victims.   read more

Environmentalists contend the coast could suffer the same fate as the Gulf states after the 2010 BP disaster that fouled coastal waters with millions of barrels of oil. “Opening Atlantic waters to offshore drilling would take us in exactly the wrong direction,” said Bob Deans. Democratic senators from East Coast states blasted the move. “All of the risk is put on the backs of our shore communities, and all of the reward goes to Big Oil,” said Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey.   read more

At $889 million, a figure leaked this week at the Kochs’ annual winter donor retreat near Palm Springs, the brothers’ secretive fundraising network goal would dwarf the $657 million spent by the entire Republican Party during the 2012 election. The Koch budget might even match the total spending by both Republicans and Democrats in next year’s contests. And all the while, the Kochs will largely avoid disclosing the sources of their campaign operation.   read more

In 2011, the town of Prague was hit by a 5.6 earthquake that damaged numerous homes, including one belonging to Ladra. She suffered an injury to her knee, requiring two surgeries. She contends the earthquake was the result of fracking wells operated by the defendants, New Dominion LLC and Spess Oil Co. The case has serious ramifications for the oil and gas industry, which could be forced to stop using the controversial drilling procedure if the two companies are found liable.   read more

TSA agents were concerned about the flash cards, and according to George, asked him: “Do you know who did 9/11?” George replied: “Osama Bin Laden.” The TSA supervisor then asked him if he knew what language Osama Bin Laden spoke. “Arabic,” George replied. To which the TSA supervisor replied: “So do you see why these cards are suspicious?” Then, a Philadelphia police officer approached George and handcuffed him. He spent five hours under arrest, cuffed the entire time.   read more