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

Known for its rich-and-famous residents, the city does have some experience with oil drilling. Venoco Inc. has operated a small cluster of oil wells on the campus of Beverly Hills High School for many years. The ban, which goes into effect June 6, applies not only to drilling operations within the city, but also those outside its jurisdiction that would extract oil or gas buried beneath Beverly Hills.   read more

Since being named ambassador to the United States, Ahn has lobbied some state officials over what to call the body of water east of the Korean peninsula in textbooks. In most books, it’s referred to as the Sea of Japan, but Korea prefers it to be known as the East Sea. Despite counterlobbying by the Japanese government, Ahn was successful in Virginia. That state’s textbooks will use both names for the body of water.   read more

Wonekha has been quoted as lamenting the gender difference between legislators in her country. Ugandan male legislators are able to network at pubs and clubs after the sessions, while women are still expected “to rush home and make your spouse comfortable.” Wonekha’s first name—Oliver—has caused some confusion, with some diplomatic directories referring to her as “His Excellency.”   read more

A member of the U.S. Supreme Court seems to believe that states may establish an official religion, despite the constitutional ban on government from doing it. As part of the recent ruling that sanctioned prayers before government meetings, Justice Clarence Thomas offered a different take on the Establishment Clause: state governments are not prohibited from establishing an official religion. Religious scholar Marci Hamilton called Thomas’ view “radically subversive.”   read more

Under intense lobbying from the White House, top U.S. CEOs have reluctantly agreed to skip an upcoming economic forum in Russia. The Obama administration has targeted Vladimir Putin's annual event as another way to punish the leader for his actions in Ukraine. Many CEOs grumbled about being caught in the middle, risking making an enemy of either Putin or Obama. “Some companies are trying to do their best to avoid getting trapped in this minefield,” said one official.   read more

The largest soft drink manufacturers in the U.S. have dumped a controversial ingredient from their sports drinks following a campaign launched by a 17-year-old. Sarah Kavanagh discovered that PepsiCo's Gatorade contained the additive BVO, which functioned as a flame retardant. Medical reports showed that consuming too much created serious health problems, like swollen hands and oozing pores. Aghast by this, Kavanagh decided to launch a petition asking PepsiCo to drop the ingredient.   read more

Governments with close ties to Washington spent more money last year to lobby Congress and the Obama administration than other foreign capitals. Foreign spenders seeking to influence U.S. policymaking were led by the United Arab Emirates, which doled $14 million on American lobbying firms to push its interests, which included “illicit finance issues.” The other top spenders after the UAE were all American allies: Germany, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.   read more

The first three months of 2014 were banner ones for lobbyists representing drug manufacturers, chemical companies and other big-business interests. These industries significantly ramped up their spending on lobbying in Washington, DC. The biggest of the big spenders was Dow Chemical, which poured $5.15 million into its influence-seeking strategies. That total “is far and away the most the company has spent in a quarter over the past five years,” OpenSecrets.org reported.   read more

Climate change is affecting all parts of the United States, but the majority of Americans aren’t very concerned. A new study says droughts, floods, heat waves and other extreme weather are here to stay and yet multiple surveys reveal most Americans don’t take climate change or global warming very seriously. One poll showed only 40% of Americans listed global climate change as a major threat to the nation. Residents of other developed nations put it much higher on their lists.   read more

Sixteen major U.S. news organizations have filed a complaint with the federal government over the FAA ban on drones for commercial use, claiming the restriction violates freedom of the press. Currently, the FAA authorizes only limited use of drones in U.S. airspace by government agencies. “The FAA’s position is untenable as it rests on a fundamental misunderstanding about journalism,” said the complaint. “News gathering is not a ‘business purpose.’ It is a First Amendment right.”   read more

Many of the nation’s leading think tanks, both on the right and the left, have been reluctant to disclose their major donors, raising questions about whether their research is being swayed by special interests. Transparify, a small nonprofit, examined many of the top think tanks to see which ones reveal the names of their key contributors. "If you are concealing the sources of funding that is relevant, as people don’t know how your research may be motivated,” said Hans Gutbrod.   read more

In one corner of the U.S. House of Representatives, reform legislation was introduced aimed at restricting the NSA collection of Americans’ phone data. This bill, the USA Freedom Act, has gotten qualified support from privacy advocates. In another corner of the House, a competing measure has been introduced, the FISA Transparency and Modernization Act, which doesn’t go as far as NSA critics would like. Observers wonder which plan will make it out of the House, and in what shape.   read more

The EPA has been accused by one of its investigators of operating a “rogue law enforcement agency” that has stymied independent probes of EPA personnel and activities. Assistant EPA inspector general Patrick Sullivan charges that EPA’s Office of Homeland Security, "under the heavy cloak of national security," has impeded investigations into employee misconduct, computer security and external threats.   read more

In a controversial decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has sanctioned the practice of prayer, particularly Christian ones, before local government meetings. The dissenting justices disagreed with the majority’s assertion that Greece’s town hall predominantly Christian prayers did not violate “the First Amendment’s promise that every citizen, irrespective of her religion, owns an equal share in her government."   read more

The investigation discovered that many school districts no longer pay attention to their desegregation orders, even though they are still in effect. Officials “have never read them, or erroneously believe that orders have been ended. In many cases, orders have gone unmonitored, sometimes for decades, by the federal agencies charged with enforcing them,” wrote Nikole Hannah-Jones. Some active desegregation orders were shipped back to Washington to be boxed up in the federal archives.   read more

The national debate over Obamacare just added a new talking point now that research shows the inspiration for President Obama’s healthcare law appears to have helped people live longer lives. Massachusetts’s 2006 healthcare law, signed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney, required universal coverage. In the four years since, the state’s mortality rate declined by nearly 3%, and by 4.6% for blacks, Asians and Latinos. Under Obamacare, such a drop would mean about 17,000 fewer deaths a year.   read more