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

Inside the controversial texts are “factual inaccuracies and exaggerations of Moses’ impact on the founding of the U.S.” Before some revisions were made, the books were even worse. They contained a cartoon mocking affirmative action recipients, de-emphasis of slavery’s role in the Civil War, negative stereotypes of Muslims, and denials of climate change. Board member Marisa Perez said she was not proud of the board’s decision, which relied on a “screwy” process involving textbook publishers.   read more

“We should be allowing these wounded warriors access to the medicine that will help them survive and thrive, including medical marijuana, not treating them like criminals,” said Rep. Blumenauer. As it is now, VA staff aren’t even allowed to fill out paperwork to allow a vet to enroll in a legal state marijuana program. If the bill becomes law, it could help many vets who suffer from PTSD, which includes 20% of the 2.8 million soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.   read more

The lawsuit, directed at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), says the coal leasing program’s impact on climate change hasn’t been updated or assessed since 1979. The plaintiffs want the Department of the Interior, BLM’s parent agency, to conduct a comprehensive environmental review of the coal program. Such a review is critical, they say, because coal mined on federal lands produces 14% of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions annually and 11% of its yearly greenhouse gas emissions.   read more

Researchers in Europe have concluded that passionate kisses can involve a lot more than just emotion. They can also include upwards of 80 million bacteria being exchanged between two people. The findings originated in the Netherlands, where researchers asked 21 couples to have their mouths swabbed. “To our surprise, we found that those people that are intimately related ... share much more of that bacteria on their tongue than unrelated individuals,” said microbiologist Remco Kort.   read more

Starting late next year, restaurant chains and movie theaters will have to list calorie counts on their menus. FDA officials are hoping the publishing of calorie totals will help Americans make smarter decisions about what they eat when going out and perhaps shrink some waistlines along the way. Nutrition professor Marion Nestle was surprised to learn that the rules went beyond what she and others expected, applying them to alcoholic beverages listed on restaurant menus.   read more

Green advocates have been working with investors to develop a new generation of biofuels that instead rely on sources such as corn husks, and forest brush. Those efforts, however, could come to a halt without the EPA’s mandate in place. And the end of the program could mean the end of the line for smaller companies engaged in ethanol production from sources other than corn. The decision by EPA officials came after intense lobbying by oil companies, car manufacturers and driving enthusiasts.   read more

Federal officials are now advising local law enforcement agencies to be careful about confiscating cars, cash and other valuables from motorists. But the new code of conduct is strictly voluntary. Cities and counties have seized more than $2.5 billion since 2001 from local police stopping citizens and seizing their possessions, even if they haven’t been proven to having done anything wrong. The agency making the seizure gets to keep 80% of the loot.   read more

Their attorneys say the failure to include the men’s testimony in the report raises questions about the thoroughness of the Senate probe. “If you’re conducting a genuine inquiry of a program that tortured people, don’t you begin by talking to the people who were tortured? It seems here, as far as my client is concerned, no effort was made to do that,” said David Nevin, who represents Mohammed. Three of the four men were waterboarded, the CIA has admitted.   read more

FSA member Assam Murad said: “There’s no way we would fight ISIS after the U.S. military campaign against them.” An alliance is reportedly being formed between ISIS and four groups that were at war earlier this year. About a thousand al-Nusra Front fighters joined ISIS in just one week. Civilians are beginning to welcome ISIS as well for the group’s social measures and its tough-on-crime Sharia law.   read more

In May, President Obama said American troops in Afghanistan would cease their “combat mission” by January 1. Now, come January 1, U.S. soldiers will engage in “combat operations,” marking the 14th consecutive year of fighting. So much for the war ending. The only real difference will be the size of U.S. forces. Instead of tens of thousands of soldiers, the U.S. will station only 9,800 to fight al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. Ground forces, manned aircraft and drones may be put to use.   read more

Elonis v. U.S. stems from the conviction of Anthony Elonis, who served several years in prison for posting messages to his wife on Facebook that she took as threats. In one, he indicated his desire to shoot her despite a court order to stay away. A court brief said people “have experienced real-life terror caused by...public posts to Facebook and other social media sites." Elonis claimed he was merely venting and performing “therapeutic efforts to address traumatic events” in his life.   read more

Goldman has donated $1.1 million to current subcommittee members since 1989 — $911,000 of which went to Democrats. More than half of that total went to one individual, Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York). In fact, OpenSecrets.org added, “Schumer has received more from Goldman over the course of his career than any other current member of the Senate — and more from Goldman than from any other organization.”   read more

In what amounts to a trust-us-we-really-know-what’s-best argument, the Department of Justice filed a brief in federal court recently that seeks to explain—in a non-explainable way—why it wants the case against UANI tossed. All officials have been willing to say is the case could expose government secrets. They won’t say what kind of secrets they are, or which agency might be involved in the matter. Legal observers have called the administration’s legal position “extraordinary and unprecedented."   read more

From suicide bombings to political protests, volleyball has been at the center of recent high-profile incidents in countries known for Islamic extremists. In Iran, a group of women were arrested in June for staging a protest outside a men’s game. The women sought access to the event in defiance of local custom that allows only male spectators. One of those arrested was British-Iranian Ghoncheh Ghavami, who was freed on bail over the weekend after spending five months imprisoned for the protest.   read more

The case, King v. Burwell, is challenging the provision in the Affordable Care Act that allows the federal government to provide financial assistance to people who buy insurance through the 37 state insurance exchanges operated by the federal government. If the plaintiffs are successful, the court’s decision could eliminate these subsidies, which currently help 13 million people afford their coverage.   read more

Late Friday, as many were heading out for the holiday week, the GOP-dominated House Intelligence Committee quietly announced what several other investigations had found: There was no wrongdoing by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the U.S. military or other high government officials in the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that resulted in the deaths of four Americans.   read more