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

Since taking over his country’s mission, much of his time has been spent protecting the interests of the immigrants, both children and adults, who have come to the United States from Honduras. He has traveled to South Texas and spoken with many Hondurans who have made the trip north. In June 2014, he implied that U.S. treatment of Hondurans who fled their country for the United States had violated “some norms reflected in international treaties.”   read more

Arouna moved to Goodworks International Consulting, a firm partly founded by former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, in January 2007. Goodworks is a lobbying firm, many of whose clients have interests in the oil industry. Arouna represented the nation of Cameroon. He was promoted to executive vice president in January 2013.   read more

Move over Saudi Arabia, there’s about to be a new king of liquid petroleum in the world: the United States. With U.S. production booming, experts predict Saudi Arabia will be surpassed in the production of oil, ethane, propane and other liquid fuels by its No. 2 rival this month or next American oil corporations have significantly increased oil production since last decade thanks to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and other developments in drilling technology.   read more

Pharmaceutical manufacturers and device companies issued 4.4 million payments to more than 500,000 health care professionals that totaled $3.5 billion, during the last half of 2013. “The main goal is to influence prescribing practices,” said Dr. Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group. “The interest of those companies is to improve their financial bottom line, and not necessarily represent the best interest of patients.”   read more

The drought that has afflicted California and the West over the past several years is at least partly due to global warming, according to a new study, and among its victims are 14 communities that could run out of water by the year's end. ACWA executive director Tim Quinn said the list could grow and include larger cities. “If this drought keeps on going, some larger, more sophisticated communities are going to be in trouble next year,” he said.   read more

The U.S. military’s hospitals recently graded out at about a “C,” according to a study released Wednesday, which in the eyes of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is failing and he has ordered improvements to be made. Hagel said he expects the system of 54 hospitals and hundreds of clinics serving defense personnel to improve services in many key areas. They have 30 to 90 days to explain how they plan to do it.   read more

The Easton Area School District imposed a ban four years ago on students wearing breast cancer awareness bracelets that read: “I ♥ Boobies! (Keep a Breast)” Two students, Brianna Hawk and Kayla Martinez, challenged the prohibition with the help of the ACLU, twice winning in federal court. Once the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the district’s appeal, the ACLU negotiated a settlement of $385,000 with the school district to pay the lawyers who worked on the case.   read more

The idea is not unlike the plot of the blockbuster movie “Armageddon,” in which the U.S. government sent a team into space with a nuclear weapon to blast apart an asteroid heading towards earth. There are about 100,000 asteroids 50 meters or larger in space, so officials think it’s better to be safe than sorry. It would take a 100-meter space rock to destroy a city the size of Washington, D.C. Last year a small asteroid shot over Russia and blew up with a force equal to 400 tons of TNT.   read more

Conservatives in Ohio and across the nation won a victory from the U.S. Supreme Court this week when it restored new restrictions on early voting in the state. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted sought to roll back early voting before Election Day. Republicans claim the changes will combat voter fraud, but there's no evidence that would happen. Voting rights organizations accuse Republicans of trying to disenfranchise minorities by restricting access to casting their ballots.   read more

Secret Service director Julia Pierson resigned Wednesday following the revelation of another embarrassing lapse in presidential security—a man with multiple convictions for violent crime was allowed to ride in an elevator with President Barack Obama while carrying a concealed handgun. The president got into an elevator with Secret Service agents along with a private security contractor. The contractor acted oddly and ignored requests to stop filming Obama with his cellphone camera.   read more

College campuses across California will soon have to adopt “yes means yes” policies to thwart sexual assaults, under a new law signed by Governor Jerry Brown. But some are uncertain the legislation will be effective. Some schools that have embraced an affirmative consent policy claim the approach has produced positive results. “Culture change is generally slow, but we have made some headway” since the plan went into effect at the University of Texas at Austin, said Jane Bost.   read more

Numerous environmental groups have called on Governor Earl Ray Tomblin to scrap fracking in sensitive areas. They argue drilling in the river could result in contamination and cut off the drinking water of millions of residents. In January, a huge chemical spill left 300,000 West Virginians without drinking water for days. “Another large-scale water contamination ...could be devastating for [our] economy and reputation, not to mention the human health costs,” the groups wrote to Tomblin   read more

Attorney General Eric Holder may have announced his resignation, but that doesn’t mean he’s mailing in his final days on the job. On the contrary, the Department of Justice is now preparing a major policy change that will forbid federal law enforcement from profiling based on religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation. The new guidelines will not contain an exemption for terrorism despite pressure from national security officials and others in the Obama administration for one.   read more

Big Tobacco discouraging Americans from buying its unhealthy products? Stanford professor Dr. Robert K. Jackler said he “nearly fell off my chair” when he saw the warnings on the e-cigarette packs. “Is this part of a noble effort for the betterment of public health, or a cynical business strategy? I suspect the latter.” The strategy might be intended to "curry favor with consumers” in order to “earn a kind of legitimacy [they've] sought for decades."   read more

Victims are often billed $1,700 to $4,000 for evidence collection, HIV tests and ER fees. Interim LSU Hospital formerly did not charge victims. However, after the hospital control was transferred to private interests at the behest of Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), victims began to be billed. Some state lawmakers and health officials are now calling for a new law to change this longstanding policy. “Talk about being traumatized twice,” said state Democratic Representative Helena Moreno.   read more

The North Carolina bill is part of a pattern by Republican-led governors and state legislatures to change the voting rules in a way that results in making it more difficult for poor and minority citizens to vote. Some of the changes are made in the name of voter fraud prevention, but no one can point to any significant instances of such misconduct. During oral arguments, Judge James Wynn, an Obama appointee, asked, "Why does the state of North Carolina not want people to vote?"   read more