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

An investigation into the 2012 recall campaign that targeted Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for alleged illegal campaign activities has been temporarily derailed by a federal judge. In response to a lawsuit, Judge Rudolph Randa ordered the special prosecutor to destroy all evidence obtained so far during the probe. “I have never heard of another situation in which a federal judge has intervened in an ongoing state investigation of possible law violations,” said law professor Ben Kempinen.   read more

Secret Service agents assigned to guard the area around the White House were pulled from their posts and told to help the assistant of the agency’s director. The agents went sent in 2011 to the home of Lisa Chopey--an hour away--where a neighbor had supposedly harassed the woman. “Prowler is there for a reason, and it shouldn’t be pulled when the president is on the move,” said former Secret Service agent Dan Emmett.   read more

The town of Orono, with about 8,000 residents, adopted an ordinance last December prohibiting wind energy conversion systems within its zoning districts. That move upset resident Jay Nygard, who’s suing Orono, claiming state law allows local governments to regulate small turbines but not ban them completely. The city’s position was that his property is too small to safely house the wind turbine. The turbine was placed within five feet of his neighbor’s land, officials say.   read more

Refugees aren’t just found in the developing world or war-torn countries. They’re also found in the U.S., where people are moving to states where they may legally buy marijuana for medical use. Realm of Caring Foundation, which produces “Charlotte’s Web,” a nonpsychoactive cannabis for pediatric epilepsy patients, says it knows of more than 100 families who moved to Colorado to access medical marijuana—with another 200 families on a waiting list to relocate when supplies increase.   read more

In 1997, Texas Disposal Systems was competing with Waste Management of Texas for trash-hauling contracts in Austin and San Antonio. At one point, Waste Management issued an “alert,” which was distributed to Austin community leaders, calling into question the environmental safety of Texas Disposal’s landfill. Texas Disposal sued Waste Management. The original trial court found Waste Management’s statements to be false.   read more

Massachusetts’ highest court on Friday rejected the challenge of an atheist couple who claimed their three children would be socially marginalized or treated differently because they didn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance in class because it includes the phrase “under God.” The court said the couple, who remain anonymous, failed to show that their children had been treated any differently because they didn’t say the pledge.   read more

Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, with eyes on the 2016 presidential nomination, has said that for every person in his state who signed up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, 40 other Kentuckians had their plans cancelled. Not so, says Politifact. When contacted by The Washington Post about the 40-to-1 cancellation claim, Paul spokesman Brian Darling said the figures used in making the claim were out of date.   read more

Coburn has for the second time blocked a bill that would have provided federal funding for bulletproof vests for local police officers. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) had put forward a proposal to reauthorize the Bulletproof Vest Grant Partnership Program. Since 1999, the program has provided more than 1.1 million vests at a cost of $375 million. Coburn’s problem with the legislation is that he doesn’t believe the federal government should fund local police.   read more

As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus was a key player in President Obama’s fight to enact health-care legislation. One of Baucus’ first moves was to declare that single-payer healthcare, that is, a system like Medicare where the federal government manages payments to doctors, was not a possibility. Baucus originally supported the war in Iraq. However, a nephew was killed in Iraq in 2006. The following January, Baucus spoke in opposition to the war.   read more

If either of these measures becomes law, the NSA will still be able to use 702 to access communications without a warrant through what’s known as the “back door search loophole.” Former NSA director General Keith Alexander has admitted that the NSA utilizes “U.S. person identifiers” to go through data collected under Section 702. Section 702 also has allowed the agency to vacuum up huge volumes of Internet traffic directly from companies such as Facebook and Google.   read more

Justice Antonin Scalia, the present court’s longest-serving member and one of its most conservative, also has the court’s most pronounced history of supporting speech by conservative speakers more often than he does that of liberal speakers, the study showed that his record on 161 cases from 1986 to 2011 revealed that he favored conservative speakers in 65% of the cases they brought before the Court, but voted in favor of liberal free speech in only 21% of their cases.   read more

A status offense is a violation that applies only to minors, such as being truant from school or running away from home. In 1980 Congress amended the act to allow exceptions if a judge determines that jailing is a solution of “last resort.” In many jurisdictions, these exceptions are actually used as an excuse to incarcerate young people without losing federal funding.   read more

Jurors were prohibited from researching anything having to do with the case, including possible sentences, while they were empaneled. Immediately after the conclusion of the case, however, they found that McMillan faces up to seven years in prison. Upon learning this, nine of the 12 jurors have sent a letter to Judge Ronald Zweibel asking that McMillan get community service and probation instead of prison.   read more

Faily was active in Iraqi expatriate groups, particularly those opposed to the reign of Saddam Hussein. After nearly 20 years abroad, Faily returned to Iraq in 2003 in the wake of the U.S. invasion. He quickly found work in that nation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.   read more

In a new report, the world’s oldest and largest insurer says, “Earth’s global climate system is warming. This conclusion is supported by a large body of evidence” from scientists and that “increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere” are “largely due to human activity such as combustion of fossil fuels and land use change.” Such changes have caused Lloyd’s to blame almost a third of its losses in 2012’s Superstorm Sandy on climate change.   read more

The political action committee for the Georgia-based company since 1979 has contributed 99% of its political checks to Republicans, according to David Willis at The New York Times. That’s a higher percentage than Koch Industries (88%) or Halliburton (90%). The second most Republican company is Illinois Tool Works (ITW), a century-old Fortune 200 manufacturing company.   read more