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

Under the proposed rules, colleges would have to reveal statistics on date-rape attacks as well as incidents involving domestic violence and stalking. In addition, schools would have to work towards helping sexual assault victims receive academic and living-environment accommodations, and for holding “prompt, fair, and impartial disciplinary” proceedings to resolve allegations. The types of hate crimes would expand to include “gender identity” and “national origin.”   read more

Roberts pointed out that even the term “cell phone” is misleading. “Many of these devices are in fact minicomputers that also happen to have the capacity to be used as a telephone. They could just as easily be called cameras, video players, Rolodexes, calendars, tape recorders, libraries, diaries, albums, televisions, maps or newspapers,” he wrote.   read more

The FDA in April proposed a series of regulations banning sales of e-cigarettes to individuals 17 and younger. The rules also restricted their sale through vending machines. The original language required sales to be “face-to-face,” which would have also banned online sales. The changes were submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget. There, officials decided to weaken the restrictions on e-cigarette, changing the face-to-face rule to apply only to vending machines.   read more

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx ordered railroads to provide states with details on train shipment routes and their oil volumes following multiple derailments in parts of the U.S. and Canada. Officials at the Federal Railroad Administration, though, threw a bone to railroads, telling them they could work with state leaders to restrict disclosures. As a result, California, New Jersey, Virginia, Minnesota, and Colorado are not releasing shipment details to the public.   read more

Judge Anna Brown declared the plaintiffs, all of whom are Muslims, have the right to know why they have been prevented from boarding aircraft. Under the current system, individuals placed on the list cannot learn the basis for their ban from flying, nor can they confirm their status with the government—something Brown said was a violation of the U.S. Constitution. The only way someone can find out if they can fly is to buy a ticket and see if they’re allowed to board the plane.   read more

In the wake of this week’s quake, state experts began to wonder if an injection well used to dispose of waste fluid from fracking operations was causing the ground to shake. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) took action on Tuesday, ordering a 20-day halt at the well operated by High Sierra Water Services in Weld County to allow seismologists from the University of Colorado (CU) time to study the situation.   read more

“We do not believe al-Awlaki’s citizenship provides a basis for concluding that he is immune from a use of force abroad” as otherwise congressionally authorized to use against Al Qaeda, David Barron, then the acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, wrote in the memo addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. Critics of the decision praised the release of the memo.   read more

While out West the states of Colorado and Washington have legalized recreational marijuana, parts of two eastern states—West Virginia and Virginia—have cracked down harder on those buying, using and selling it. In Hancock County, West Virginia, marijuana busts skyrocketed by more than 2,000% last decade, according to The Washington Post. That was the highest increase in possession arrests among local governments in the country.   read more

The situation has been so bad inside the operation that at least nine veteran employees have quit since 2011, helping to exacerbate the agency’s backlog of investigations into chemical accidents. CSB’s investigations into two 2010 accidents—the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the Tesoro Corporation refinery fire in Washington State—each took four years to complete.   read more

Transgender people generally do not self-identify with the gender with which they were born. It is estimated there are about 8,800 transgender people on active duty currently, according to a report (pdf) from The Williams Institute, a think tank based at UCLA School of Law. Another 6,700 are serving in the National Guard or reserves, making a total of 15,500 transgender individuals helping to protect the United States.   read more

Call it a drug was. Two decades ago, the U.S. government established a special program that allows certain hospitals and medical clinics to purchase expensive pharmaceutical drugs at a discount so they can pass on the savings to patients needing medication. But this effort has come under fire from the drug industry, claiming healthcare providers are taking advantage of the discounts to boost their profits.   read more

Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion, added that the agency “sought to regulate sources it said were responsible for 86 percent of all the greenhouse gases emitted from stationary sources nationwide. Under our holdings, EPA will be able to regulate sources responsible for 83 percent of those emissions.” Scalia was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in the 7-2 ruling.   read more

About one fifth of all life insurance being taken out is by companies hoping to reap cash from their employees’ demise. The “cash surrender value,” the amount policyholders can receive before a worker dies, of BofA’s policies is at least $17.6 billion. At Wells Fargo it’s $12.7 billion, and at JPMorgan Chase it’s $5 billion, according to the Times. Banks can use those numbers on their balance sheets as “Tier 1 capital,” a measure of an institution’s strength.   read more

With only seven votes to spare (310-303), Presbyterian Church U.S.A.’s (PC(USA) governing body voted last week to divest $21 million from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions. The corporations have reportedly provided Israel with means to destroy Palestinian homes, operate border checkpoints, and develop border barriers between it and Gaza. The church’s decision also included statements affirming the church’s belief in Israel’s right to exist.   read more

The UC Davis MIND Institute released a study showing expectant mothers exposed to certain agricultural chemicals, specifically organophosphates, face a 60% higher chance of having autistic offspring. The danger is especially prevalent during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Those at risk include residents near fields growing cantaloupes, melons, oranges, tomatoes, cotton and alfalfa.   read more

A team of researchers says they found remains stuffed inside garbage bags, body bags and in some instances nothing at all before their unmarked burials. Skulls were found in red plastic biohazard bags placed between coffins. The haphazard internment included putting multiple bodies in a single bag, making it difficult for anthropologists to determine just how many immigrants were dumped this way.   read more