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

The “Friendship Nine” challenged racial segregation in Rock Hill, South Carolina on January 31, 1961 by refusing to leave the lunch counter at McCrory’s, a five-and-dime store. They went into the store with a strategy called “jail, no bail,” intending to force local law enforcement to incarcerate them, which they believed would draw more attention to their cause. The men refused to post bail and were sentenced to 30 days of hard labor at a county prison farm.   read more

The Miss Universe pageant got a little political when Miss Israel, Doron Matalon, posted a selfie on Instagram with several other contestants, including Miss Lebanon, Saly Greige. Having Miss Israel next to Miss Lebanon was a big deal because the two countries have no diplomatic relations, going back to 1948 when Israel was created. Some in Lebanon were so upset by the photo that they demanded Greige lose her title for being publicly seen “with the citizen of an enemy state,”   read more

Millennials continue to grow in number, even though the generation was born from 1981 to 1997, thanks to the continuing flow of immigrants, particularly younger foreign residents, into the country. The generation’s numbers will reach more than 75 million this year, surpassing the 74.9 million of Boomers, whose totals will continue to shrink as more die off in the coming years. The Millennial population won’t peak for another 21 years, when it will reach 81.1 million by 2036.   read more

The requested documents contained sensitive trade secrets. Last week, after waiting out the three-month appeal period, the Times sued to get them. The system’s three-stage rocket intercepts the target warhead in space head on in a “bullet-to-bullet” collision. Except when it doesn’t. So far, the missile is eight for 17 at shooting down its target, despite the Pentagon staging “carefully choreographed tests that are more predictable and less challenging than an actual attack would be.”   read more

Police back the halt in deportations because it makes undocumented immigrants more likely to report crimes and cooperate with police. “When criminals know that their victims are afraid or are unwilling to cooperate with the police, then they enjoy that. And, in fact, crime thrives,” Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank told the Salt Lake Tribune. The National Immigration Law Center praised the chiefs and sheriffs for their move, which they say supports public safety.   read more

The Solar Foundation, which supports solar power, claims in a new report that more than 173,000 people had solar-related jobs as of last year. The coal industry had only about 93,000 workers. Job growth in solar has been phenomenal, expanding by 20% or more in each of the last two years. In 2014, it added 31,000 new jobs and solar businesses plan to add another 36,000 employees this year. One out of 78 jobs created in the U.S.over the past year were created by the solar industry,   read more

It took Slahi six years to get his book published after the U.S. tried to keep it classified and contains 2,500 redactions ordered by the federal government. Guantánamo Diary is being published in the U.S. and 19 other countries. Like other accounts from detainees, Slahi’s is filled with stories of being tortured, including sleep deprivation, death threats, sexual humiliation, threats against his mother, forced to drink salt water, and beaten for hours at a time while immersed in ice.   read more

Each year, more than 73,000 diabetics in the U.S. have to have limbs or appendages amputated. Some of these surgeries could be prevented if Heberprot-P, a drug developed and produced in Cuba, is approved by the FDA. Heberprot-P has been around for nine years in Cuba, where it has helped numerous people avoid amputations resulting from diabetic foot ulcers. American researchers hope the U.S. will allow the drug to undergo clinical trials once trade normalization takes effect.   read more

High-deductible plans are becoming increasingly common. According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2006 10% of workers were enrolled in a plan with a deductible of $1,000 or more. By 2014, that number had increased to 41% of workers. Smaller firms had an even larger percentage of workers covered by high-deductible policies. In companies employing fewer than 200 people, the numbers went from 16% in 2006 to 61% last year.   read more

Children can get a free lunch through the National School Lunch Program if their family is at or below 130% of the federal poverty rate. They get reduced-price lunches, costing no more than 40 cents, if their family income is between 130% and 185% of the poverty rate. In 2013, 51% of children qualified for free or reduced-price lunches. That’s up from 38% in 2000. Mississippi leads the nation with 71% of its children eligible for the school lunch program.   read more

2014 was the warmest year recorded since 1880, when weather records began to be kept. The average temperature was 0.69 degrees C (1.24° F) warmer than the average 20th century temperature. Had you been hoping for a white Christmas? Chances are, you didn’t have one. No state capital had snow cover on December 25 for only the second time since 1946.   read more

A study by the nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen says the U.S. lost nearly 5 million manufacturing jobs following the adoption of 16 free trade agreements. U.S. food exports have stagnated while U.S. food imports have more than doubled in the wake of the agreements. They have been especially difficult on family farms. About 170,000 small family farms have gone under since NAFTA and the 1995 WTO (World Trade Organization) agreement took effect, down 21%.   read more

A month after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said it did not have an objection, in principle, to Indian tribes growing marijuana on their trust-held land, Mendocino, California’s Pinoleville Pomo Nation announced it was building a $10-million greenhouse facility on its 99-acre rancheria in Ukiah. . FoxBarry Cos. LLC announced that it was putting up $30 million as part of the United Cannabis deal to develop the growing facilities.   read more

The Justice Department program called “Equitable Sharing” was part of the War on Drugs and allowed police departments to confiscate personal property deemed to be connected with a drug crime, share a fraction of it with the federal government and keep the balance for use within the department. Because the program did not require police to prove any connection between the property owners and any criminal act, it was, from the beginning, open to law enforcement abuse.   read more

Those living at or below the federal poverty level had a victimization rate of 39.8 per 1,000, while those with high incomes had a rate of only 16.9. The pattern was consistent between whites and blacks, with poor members of both races suffering more than their better-off counterparts. The one anomaly was among Hispanic populations. For them, the victimization rate was about the same regardless of income.   read more

On June 10, 2006, three prisoners were found hanging in their cells. The base commander, Rear Admiral Harry Harris, said not only were the deaths suicides, but were orchestrated to make the United States look bad. “I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us,” he said. Now Staff Sgt. Joseph Hickman, who was on duty the night of the deaths, has called the official version of events “impossible.”   read more