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 biggest culprit among the thousands of leaking gas wells is the one in New Mexico's San Juan Basin, which is the most active coalbed methane production area in the U.S. Much of the gas from the wells escapes via leaking pipes or when it is released into the atmosphere by companies that are only drilling for oil. Some of those firms burn off the methane, which converts it into carbon monoxide, another greenhouse gas that forms a brownish pall blanketing the sky.   read more

The Supreme Court’s cautious approach is partially driven by its concern for security, said the Chief Justice. “Foreign and domestic hackers, whose motives may range from fishing for secrets to discrediting the government or impairing court operations,” is something to guard against, he wrote. The new online system will cover all court petitions, responses, briefs and other public documents. The change will fall far short of what many legal and media observers of the court desire.   read more

The agency in charge of guarding the nation’s border, particularly the southern boundary with Mexico, wants to significantly increase its ranks of female agents. So the Border Patrol launched a campaign to recruit more women, and so far, it has produced 5,500 applications from females. Currently, women only make up 5% of the Border Patrol. The agency has a total of 21,000 agents and is seeking to add another 1,600, of either gender, through the end of this fiscal year.   read more

Rolando Sarraff Trujillo, an American spy said to have been released from a Cuban prison two weeks ago in a spy exchange with the U.S., is nowhere to be found. Sarraff had worked as a cryptologist for Cuba Intelligence, at which time he secretly fed the U.S. information to crack Cuban codes. Sarraff’s information led to the arrest and conviction of Cuban spies working in the U.S. government, including a senior Defense Intelligence Agency analyst and a former State Department official .   read more

Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said the kingdom will go to the mat to reaffirm its dominance—even if it means lowering the price of crude to $20 a barrel. That would be a huge drop, as it's held at $90 or more for years. “It is not in the interest of OPEC producers to cut their production,” he said. “High efficiency producing countries are the ones that deserve market share. … If the price falls, it falls . . . Others will be harmed greatly before we feel any pain.”   read more

The Ebola scare took over the news cycle for weeks last fall, but when all was said and done, it was responsible for only two deaths in the United States. Another disease that is far more communicable is already responsible for the deaths of 15 U.S. children but has received comparatively little attention. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the flu is responsible for those deaths, and that every state can expect to report flu cases “within the next few weeks,”   read more

“The numbers paint the most comprehensive picture to date of an electoral landscape in which the financial balance has tilted dramatically to the ultra-rich," wrote Politico's Kenneth Vogel. "They have taken advantage of a spate of recent federal court rulings, regulatory decisions and feeble or bumbling oversight to spend ever-greater sums in politics — sometimes raising questions about whether their bounty is being well spent.”   read more

The Military Lending Act of 2006 was intended to protect military members and their families from being gouged by lenders offering payday and auto title loans. But it contained several loopholes that opened the way for predatory loan providers to charge military families more than the 36% interest allowed by law. Lenders can easily do this by offering different terms than those proscribed in the law.   read more

Four years ago, the General Services Administration (GSA) was caught spending more than $800,000 in taxpayer money on a lavish conference in Las Vegas. The fallout included the firing of two GSA managers who were accused by the agency of not providing better oversight of those who planned the event. Now a civil service review board has ruled that the agency was wrong to fire the managers and the GSA has been ordered to reinstate them and give them 30 months of back pay.   read more

“The documents show that the deadly missions were not just viewed as a last resort to prevent attacks,” stated Der Spiegel. The “war on terror” became intermingled with the “war on drugs,” said Reprieve's Jennifer Gibson. “This is both new and extremely legally troubling." It also raises "legal and moral questions that extend far beyond Afghanistan,” added Der Spiegel. “Can a democracy be allowed to kill its enemies in a targeted manner when the objective is not to prevent an imminent attack?”   read more

Hacker Jan Krissler claims he replicated the fingerprint of Germany’s defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, using an ordinary camera and computer software. He said he took high-resolution photos of Leyen’s hands as she moved them while speaking at a press conference, then worked with the images on his computer to duplicate her fingerprints. This would allow him, he said, to hack into any of Leyen’s accounts protected by biometric scanners on any high-end smart phones she might own.   read more

For the family of 18-year-old Natasha Weigel, who died after her GM-made car’s ignition switch shut off just before her fatal accident, getting a lawyer to help them sue GM has proven challenging. One law firm turned down the Weigels in 2007, saying the state’s cap of $350,000 for “maximum recovery for loss...and the extreme expense of litigating the case against General Motors” left them disinclined to get involved.   read more

With more people choosing to reduce, if not eliminate gluten from their diet, Catholic leaders have tried to accommodate those who can’t ingest communion wafers—which are made of whole wheat per the Code of Canon Law—without getting sick. “Imagine how painful and spiritually challenging it is for faithful Catholics, who desire to receive Holy Communion...but who are unable to ingest wheat bread because of the grave physical harm it can cause them,” wrote Monsignor Mark J. Meridian.   read more

How are small towns expected to finance their equally small governments? Use of roadway speed traps is the obvious answer. Or so claims one state attorney general. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has sued 13 municipalities in St. Louis County for violating state law. Four were accused of using monies from speeding tickets and other traffic violations to pay for more than 30% of their budgets, which is in violation of Missouri law.   read more

The United States didn’t skip a beat last weekend when it officially ended the war in Afghanistan, then launched its new mission to justify the nearly 11,000 American soldiers remaining in the country. A ceremony was held Sunday that declared the 13-year war against the Taliban and insurgents was concluded. The very same ceremony was used to proclaim the start of operation “Resolute Support,” which calls for keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan to advise and train the Afghan military.   read more

“A global disease-forecasting system will improve the way we respond to epidemics,” Sara Del Valle, a study co-author, said. “In the same way we check the weather each morning, individuals and public health officials can monitor disease incidence and plan for the future based on today’s forecast.” The researchers said that through Wikipedia, they observed flu outbreaks in the U.S., Poland, Japan and Thailand.   read more