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

Consumer, environmental and worker safety regulators in Washington are supposed to ensure the concerns of small businesses are included in rulemaking. But increasingly federal agencies are instead giving too much weight to the voices of large corporate interests that have “hijacked” small business representation. The EPA, OSHA and CFPB have allowed trade associations and corporations they represent to “capture” small business review panels that are there to help the little guy.   read more

State Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley accused Brownback of not telling the voting public the truth about his tax policies as he campaigned for a second term. “He knew all along that his policies were going to bankrupt the state,” Hensley told reporters. “There are some very, very difficult choices ahead for the Legislature. They’re going to have to cut school funding. They’re going to have to raid the highway fund. They very likely will have to cut social services.”   read more

André Shepherd had come to the conclusion that the U.S. war in Iraq was wrong, and that his support for Apache attack helicopters contributed to war crimes because they dropped bombs "indiscriminately—and increasingly catching civilians in the crossfire.” So Shepherd left his post and appealed to the German government for asylum. That request moved closer to becoming a reality after a European Court adviser cited European law as covering asylum requests for someone like Shepherd.   read more

Element Electronics has marketed itself as an American-owned company that sells the only American-assembled television in the country. That pitch has won it relationships with Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club and other businesses. But Element has reportedly outright lied about its TVs being made in this country. For starters, the sets are made in China. They’re then shipped to Element’s facility in South Carolina, then shipped off to stores.   read more

“The hard truth remains that people wake up in the morning and turn on their televisions — and political groups know this,” said Kantar Media's Elizabeth Wilner. “Good Morning America” proved the most popular with campaigns, which bought time for nearly 30,000 Senate ads there during the 2014 election cycle. “Today” and “CBS This Morning” came in second and third, respectively. “Wheel of Fortune” fans were subjected to 20,000 election ads, and “Jeopardy!” viewers 18,000.   read more

At least three nations have deployed missiles that can destroy enemy positions without any guidance from human operators. “An autonomous weapons arms race is already taking place,”said physicist Steve Omohundro. Norway has the Joint Strike Missile, which can lock in on targets without human control. The Pentagon is testing Lockheed's Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, but officials won’t say if it can attack on its own. Many fear autonomous weapons will make warfare more likely or destructive.   read more

As President Barack Obama works to establish policies to limit climate-changing emissions through federal regulatory actions and an international accord with China, Republicans are determined to use their new congressional power to stymie those efforts. While the EPA moves to strengthen limits on smog-causing ozone and reduce coal ash waste by power plants, Republicans may throw a wrench in Obama’s environmental plans by trying to cut off EPA funding.   read more

The government actions involved agencies in the U.S., Britain and Switzerland handing out combined fines of $4.25 billion to major international banks caught rigging the $5.3 trillion-a-day world of foreign exchange. The biggest penalty by a single regulator came out of the Financial Conduct Authority of Britain, which hit five major banks with more than $1.7 billion in fines. In Washington, the CFTC announced $1.4 billion in penalties against Citigroup, HSBC, JPMorgan, RBS and UBS.   read more

During the first eight months of 2014, blacks and Hispanics made up 86% of the low-level marijuana possession busts. However, the two groups make up only 60% of the city’s population, while whites have higher rates of marijuana use. “To the extent the police department continues to disproportionately enforce the law in black and Latino communities, any administrative change on minor marijuana possession will constitute window-dressing in the name of reform,” said U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.   read more

If there’s one branch of the armed services that leans Democratic, it is the U.S. Army. About $534,000 was given to political candidates, party committees and outside spending groups by active duty military personnel, according to OpenSecrets.org. As for the Navy, “a plurality of its donations” went to Democrats and liberal groups. The vast majority of members of the Air Force (74%) and Marine Corps (81%) who wrote checks really leaned in the GOP’s direction.   read more

U.S. drone technology is now in the hands of Iran, which claims to have reverse-engineered an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In December 2011, the Iranian military captured a Lockheed UAV after it strayed into Iran’s airspace from Afghanistan. Iran claimed they’d hacked into the drone’s electronic system, allowing them to take control and divert it to their country. Engineers reportedly took the drone apart and figured out how it works, allowing them to build their own version.   read more

The FBI reported that the number of murders and non-negligent homicides last year fell 4.4% to 14,196, the lowest total since 1968. The murder rate has also been dropping and stands at 4.5 per 100,000 population. Firearms were used in 69% of the murders in 2013. Violent crimes, a category that includes murder, also dropped 4.4% to 1.16 million last year. Not since 1978, when there were 1.09 million violent crimes, was that figure so low.   read more

The president’s proposal comes amid growing concern over efforts by telecommunications giants like Verizon and Comcast to charge corporations like Netflix extra money to gain greater bandwidth and faster streaming for customers. Instead, net neutrality would mean that a provider couldn’t block legal sites, couldn’t “throttle” or slow traffic, and couldn’t pay to get faster traffic. Obama has no power to make the change directly. The FCC might or might not follow his suggestion.   read more

When it comes to investing in the market, members of Congress love their blue chip stocks. A new database from the watchdog group MapLight has revealed the most popular companies that senators and representatives invested in last year. General Electric led the way with 69 lawmakers owning stock in the corporation. The total value of the shares ranged between $2.3 million and $5.9 million, according to MapLight. The second most popular stock was Microsoft, owned by 57 lawmakers.   read more

Innate potatoes are manipulated to contain less of the chemical acrylamide, which can cause cancer in people who eat fried potatoes. The GMO potato also is designed to bruise less during harvesting and transport. Simplot is hoping the Innate potatoes might face less pushback than previously marketed genetically modified versions. One reason is the modifications are meant to solve a human health problem, rather than fight farm pests.   read more

Consumers count on the FDA to keep food safe, but the agency tests very little of the produce sold in the U.S. for pesticides The FDA tests only one-tenth of 1% of the food imported for use on U.S. dinner tables, and that’s actually far more testing than happens to domestic food. This is startling considering that “from 1970 to 2007, hundreds of millions of pounds of pesticides were applied annually to U.S. food crops to protect them from pests,” the GAO wrote.   read more