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

In his lawsuit, plaintiff Kent Bernbeck objected to this provision claiming it resulted in giving more importance to rural voters at the expense of urban ones. U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Bataillon agreed with Bernbeck and found the requirement violated the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment and equal protection clause. This was Bernbeck's third lawsuit in 17 years aimed at easing restrictions on the ballot petition process.   read more

The last president who was in office six years to veto as few bills as Obama was James Monroe, who vetoed one bill from 1817 to 1825. Even considering the Republican landslide this month, the GOP, the House and Senate would need a two-thirds majority to override a veto, and that’s not likely to happen.   read more

At one point during the Great Recession, the unemployment rate for men was as much as 2.6% higher than that of women. But beginning in September, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, men had a 5.9% unemployment rate while the women’s rate stood at 6.0%. The gap widened last month when the men’s rate fell to 5.6% while women’s unemployment was at 5.9%. Part of the reason for the switch is that construction jobs, concentrated among men, are starting to come back.   read more

The cost of fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been pegged at $8 million a day, according to the Department of Defense. President Barack Obama asked Congress for an additional $5.6 billion to combat ISIS. Defense News reported that most of this money will be used to train and equip Iraqi and Kurdish militaries, continue U.S. airstrikes and other air operations, and move troops and supplies through the region.   read more

The document argues that the nation’s largest organic farming industry wouldn’t be economically harmed by having to use pesticides because they could simply sell their product in the conventional food market. They would keep their official state organic certification, but couldn’t call themselves organic in the marketplace.   read more

Some APA members were displeased when the organization altered its ethics rules in 2002 to provide cover to psychologists working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and who participated in harsh interrogation sessions with detainees. Essentially, the change gave psychologists permission to ignore ethical concerns if ordered by the government to help extract information from al-Qaeda members.   read more

The systems electronically mimic a cell tower, enabling law enforcement to collect location and other information about calls. When used in a small plane, they pick up information about tens of thousands of calls in one flight. Those familiar with the program say sweeps are being approved by judges, but since the orders are sealed, it’s unclear whether the courts are aware of the breadth of the systems’ coverage.   read more

The drop saved $11.9 billion in healthcare costs, according to the March of Dimes. The uninsured rate for women fell from 20.1% to 19.8% and it’s likely to drop further with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. Smoking among women fell from 20.8% to 20.5%. Another cause of preterm births is the practice by some of medically unnecessary inductions or Caesarian sections, which have also fallen slightly from 8.1% to 8.0%.   read more

Seed companies Monsanto and Dow spent $8 million to try to defeat a proposal that would ban cultivation of genetically modified organisms in Maui County, Hawaii, in this month’s general election. The initiative passed anyway and now the seed companies are suing to prevent its enforcement. Monsanto and Dow unit Mycogen Seeds use acreage on the islands of Maui and Molokai, both part of Maui County, to research and develop new strains of genetically modified corn.   read more

She left federal service in 2003 to become a consultant for International Trade and Sustainability Services. She did some work for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and later came on board as a full-time employee of the organization as managing director for international policy. In 2011, Haverkamp was made director of EDF’s International Climate Program, remaining in that role until 2014, when she left to do consulting work and lecture in the law at George Washington University.   read more

On September 8, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Michele Thoren Bond, a career Foreign Service officer, to head the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs. Bond has been leading that office since April 2014 on an acting basis. In 2010, Bond was named ambassador to Lesotho. She returned to the United States in December 2012 to take up the post of principal deputy assistant secretary of state for consular services, where she served until being named acting director.   read more

Lockheed Martin for years has been running one of the government’s most important nuclear research facilities, Sandia National Laboratories. Five years ago, its lucrative contract with the Department of Energy (DOE) was coming to an end, so Lockheed started to lobby officials to win an extension. That lobbying included using some of the money paid by DOE for Lockheed to run Sandia. Under federal law, this is a big no-no. But Lockheed did it anyway.   read more

The indictment says Donald Blankenship turned a blind eye to hundreds of safety violations “in order to produce more coal, avoid the costs of following safety laws, and make more money.” It charges he ordered miners “not to construct certain ventilation controls that would produce more reliable airflow because constructing them diverted time from coal production.” Federal investigators concluded that the explosion that killed the 29 men was preventable.   read more

For the past five years, the Corporation for National and Community Service has been putting out a report on reports produced by federal agencies. Seeing this effort and others like it as a waste of taxpayer money, House members unanimously adopted HR 4194, which calls for eliminating the report on reports as well as the Dog and Cat Fur Protection report and 46 other reports. The cost savings from the move is estimated to be about $1 million a year.   read more

Schneider grew up around politics. His father, John, was a North Dakota state legislator and speaker of the house who was subsequently appointed to be the state’s U.S. attorney by President Bill Clinton. Schneider left the North Dakota legislature in November 2009 to become state director of USDA Rural Development in North Dakota, a post he held for five years.   read more

O’Brien left Iowa in 2006 to become the assistant director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture. He left to work on the Obama for President campaign in 2008 as rural vote director for Obama for Ohio. After the election, O’Brien was brought into the Obama administration, first as chief of staff for Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, then as senior advisor to a fellow Iowan, Secretary Tom Vilsack. In 2011, O’Brien was named deputy under secretary for rural development.   read more