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 background check industry is unregulated in the United States. A report (pdf) by the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) shows that screening companies often mismatch people with records, fail to report crucial information about a case (such as when someone is arrested but found not guilty), access information that was supposed to be expunged from records and other errors.   read more

NSA documents show that the program, called SOMALGET, is in use in the Bahamas to locate “international narcotics traffickers and special-interest alien smugglers,” according to The Intercept. Washington doesn’t even pretend there’s a terror-related reason for the collection. “There is little to no threat facing Americans from domestic (Bahamian) terrorism, war, or civil unrest,” according to a 2013 State Department report.   read more

In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Taylor to be coordinator for counterterrorism for the Department of State, holding the rank of ambassador in the post. During the time he was in that post, he contradicted the Bush administration’s claim that Iraq had links to Mohamed Atta, the suspected ringleader in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.   read more

The documents show monitoring in 2011 and 2012 by law enforcement agencies around the country, reporting on religious meetings, Christmas caroling and other events. The Boston fusion center was among the most active. It passed along information about a lecture by Noam Chomsky, flash mobs protesting a bank’s lending practices and notably, a yoga class. Much of the information was acquired through social media channels.   read more

• Sixty-one percent of drone strikes in Pakistan targeted domestic buildings, with at least 132 houses destroyed, in more than 380 strikes. • At least 222 civilians are estimated to be among the 1,500 or more people killed in attacks on such buildings. • The time of an attack affects how many people—and how many civilians—are likely to die. Strikes that took place in the evening, when families are likely to be at home, were particularly deadly.   read more

The largest single contributor to Foxx’s campaign is Corinthian Colleges, based in Santa Ana, California. Corinthian is under investigation by California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who has said the company has engaged in “deceptive and false advertisements and aggressive marketing campaigns that misrepresented job placement rates and school programs.” Seventeen other states are investigating the school for various violations. The federal government is also investigating Corinthian.   read more

Starting in July 2008, he was deputy chief of mission in Ankara, Turkey, and in 2010 he was charge d’affaires for the embassy there. During his time Turkey, Silliman and his wife Catherine appeared on Turkish television, showing viewers what went into an American Thanksgiving dinner. In July 2011, moved on to Baghdad as councilor for political affairs. He was named deputy chief of mission and charge d’affaires in 2012, a post he held until his nomination as ambassador to Kuwait.   read more

Valdés had a brush with the Pinochet killing machine. He usually rode to work with colleagues Orlando Letelier, Letelier’s aide Michael Moffitt and Moffitt’s wife Ronni, but didn’t on September 21, 1976. The day before, a bomb had been planted in Letelier’s car and it went off while the three were on their way to work. Letelier and Ronni Moffitt were killed. Valdés had ridden in the car the day before the explosion while the bomb was attached.   read more

Under a settlement reached with the Labor Department, the Marlins will pay $288,290 in back wages and damages to 39 team employees, including clubhouse and office staff. Nearly two dozen clubhouse workers, who staff locker rooms before and after games, were paid $50 a day while working up to 11 hours instead of receiving minimum wage and overtime. In the case of the Giants, the team has twice negotiated deals with the federal government to resolve violations of U.S. wage laws.   read more

Even in an intractable, partisan Congress, Democrats and Republicans can find something to agree upon—that the Department of Defense needs to stop wasting money. The Pentagon’s penchant for burning through billions of dollars on bad ideas has frustrated people on both sides of the aisle, which is why Democratic and Republican lawmakers managed to find common ground on several cost-saving amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2015.   read more

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has had to maintain enough space in detention centers for 34,000 immigrants a day, as a result of legislation approved by Congress five years ago. Keeping that many beds available, regardless of the actual need, has consumed more than $2 billion a year.   read more

. In 2006, he joined the staff of Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Connecticut) as an agriculture appropriations associate. The legislation he worked on included the 2008 Farm Bill, the Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill, and the Food Safety Modernization Act Ronholm left for the executive branch in April 2011 as deputy under secretary for food safety. When Hagen left in 2013, Ronholm took over the top food safety position.   read more

In 2001, Gegeshidze cbecame a senior fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (GFSIS), a think tank. During his time at GFSIS, Gegeshidze wrote many scholarly papers and articles about Georgian policy, much of it about regional security and Georgia’s role as part of Europe. Gegeshidze remained at GFSIS until being sent to Washington as ambassador.   read more

Former members of the U.S. Congress and those who failed to win sit on top of nearly $100 million in campaign funds that weren’t spent by Election Day. Some campaign war chests are brimming with money. At least nine former congressional members and candidates have $1 million or more. Former U.S. senator Evan Bayh, out of office three years, still has almost $10 million in surplus campaign cash. That money sits in an investment account accruing thousands of dollars in interest each week.   read more

Never before in its history has the FBI allowed, nor ordered, its agents to document interrogations. In fact, officials explicitly told agents to not record interrogations. One reason was uncovered in an FBI memo saying defendants might be acquitted by jurors who saw the FBI's tactics. Defense attorneys and others hailed the policy reversal. “As we have seen from data regarding wrongful convictions, coercive police techniques...[can] produce false confessions,” said Jerry Cox.   read more

A license plate reader, mounted in a police car, misread one digit on Denise Green’s license plate, triggering an alert that the vehicle was stolen. Even though the wanted vehicle looked nothing like Green’s, four officers drew their weapons on Green, who was forced from her car and ordered to kneel on the pavement. The incident resulted in Green suing San Francisco, raising the question whether technology alone is enough to legally justify a search.   read more