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 drop is even sharper when the Justice Department numbers are put up alongside those from 2004 (down 32% when there were 760 cases under Bush) and 1994 (down 27% when 711 were reported under Clinton). TRAC says public corruption referrals sent from federal agencies to Justice have averaged 1,674 during the past five years. This total is about the same as under Bush (1,663 referrals).   read more

Established in 1937 following the completion of Hoover Dam, Lake Mead today is at its lowest water level since it first began filling up during the New Deal era. It’s lost 60% of its water capacity since 1983. The mammoth reservoir has had far more water being pumped out to supply Las Vegas (from which 90% of its water originates) and other Southwest cities than water being carried in from its primary supply, the Colorado River.   read more

These days, a pint of blood can go for $180 to $300, depending on demand. These earnings get passed down to the institute’s top executives, who make six-figure salaries. Leading the team is OBI’s CEO, John Armitage, whose annual salary is $421,561.   read more

Since 1971, Ohio has experienced 43,891 spills of hazardous materials. In second place is Pennsylvania (39,939), followed by California (39,673), Texas (39,084) and Illinois (37,524) among the top five. Ohio’s third largest city, Cincinnati, has dealt with more than 25% of the state’s accidents, and managed to average one spill a day last year.   read more

Known as “rolling coal,” some diesel truck owners have modified their engines and vehicles so they can blow thick, black, acrid clouds of exhaust into the air while driving down the road. The EPA, meanwhile, has stated that the practice is clearly illegal, which it says is supported by two paragraphs on the enforcement page of the agency’s website.   read more

All kinds of personal communications—from intimate messages to family photos—have been collected and stored in secret repositories controlled by the NSA. Performed under the guise of counterterrorism operations, the collecting of personal emails, text messages and images has by far outnumbered those of would-be threats. Within the files are communications of people discussing their sex lives, financial worries, health concerns and even their broken dreams.   read more

The political gridlock that has largely paralyzed Washington is about more than Democrats and Republicans not seeing eye-to-eye. It’s also a result of the two houses of Congress being very far apart on the ideological scale. The House and Senate “are more divided than at any time since the end of World War I” as far as political viewpoints go, said Harry Enten. The widest ideological gap on Capitol Hill last came in the 1980s. Today the gap is more than double.   read more

The change began in Oregon after a federal judge ruled that a sheriff had illegally held an immigrant at the request of U.S. Immigration. Other Oregon sheriffs then ceased honoring requests to detain immigrants for 48 hours without probable cause. Sheriffs in California, Washington, Minnesota and Kansas then followed suit. “When a judge says something is in violation of the Fourth Amendment, I am not going to just keep doing it,” said San Diego County Sheriff William Gore.   read more

Connecticut was the first to pass legislation that authorized police to seize guns when individuals demonstrate they are a danger to themselves or others. Lawmakers adopted the landmark bill following a deadly shooting at the state’s lottery office, where four people were killed by a disgruntled employee. The other state is Indiana, which adopted its own law in 2005 following the fatal shooting of two people and the wounding of four others by a mentally ill person.   read more

Due to reckless industrial development, huge swaths of Chinese acreage contain harmful heavy metals, including cadmium, arsenic, lead, nickel and mercury. As much of 20% of China’s arable land is polluted in this manner. As for Chinese produce labeled “organic,” it’s unclear that eating that is healthier than consuming locally grown, non-organic foods. Organic crops are often fertilized with animal manure that could be contaminated with heavy metals.   read more

When forms are submitted, third parties are then authorized to provide birth control to the insured. The court endorsed Wheaton’s refusal to use mandatory forms for the transfer on the grounds that they led indirectly to the use of birth control. Sotomayor wrote that the court had undermined its own ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, which upheld the use of the forms. “Those who are bound by our decisions usually believe they can take us at our word,” she said. “Not so today.”   read more

Cases of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea (PED) virus have swept through the pork industry. The virus strikes piglets that are two to three weeks old and kills virtually all the animals it infects. Larry Baldwin of Waterkeeper said earlier this year in a press release: “Hogs are commonly buried in low-lying areas adjacent to wetlands. They often sit out for days waiting to be transported for off-site disposal while blood and other fluids seep into the ground.”   read more

US Investigations Services LLC (USIS) was sued by the Department of Justice for cutting corners while conducting investigations of people seeking clearance for sensitive government jobs. The firm also was embarrassed in two high-profile incidents last year when it was reported that USIS had performed the background checks for National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis.   read more

According to the GAO, the Pentagon spends an average of 99 cents per unit for a sample of 78 drugs (33 brand-name and 45 generic), while the same drugs cost 82 cents a unit when purchased by Medicare Part D and 62 cents by Medicaid.   read more

U.S. physicians write 82.5 prescriptions for opiate analgesics for every 100 persons in the country. Expressed another way, there are 40,000 daily doses of OPRs consumed here for each million inhabitants per day. The second leading consumer of OPRs, according to a United Nations report, is Canada with 20,000 daily doses per million. By comparison, Mexico consumes only 85 daily doses per million inhabitants.   read more

A law taking effect this month forces foreign financial institutions to let the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) examine its records to ensure that U.S. citizens abroad are not hiding taxable income from the federal government. Before FATCA went into effect, the IRS depended on citizens to self-report their foreign income.   read more