According to aides who were present when Trump discussed the issue, but who choose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, Trump said he was sick of Vance and wanted to fire him. “I wanted him to be my attack dog,” said Trump, “but he appears foolish on television. He dropped the college football trophy. He met with Pope Francis and the next day the pope died. Vance is toxic, and I don’t want him to come near me. He just doesn’t look as good on television as I thought he would.”   read more

DOJ proposes to clarify that the statute covers “persons who are found incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, lack of mental responsibility, or insanity, and that the term includes persons found guilty but mentally ill.” The rule would also “clarify that the statutory term ‘committed to a mental institution’ applies to involuntary inpatient or outpatient treatment.”   read more

The haphazard efforts have undermined counterterrorism aims, and perhaps more importantly, compromised the constitutional rights of Americans. “Many police departments and fusion centers have reported on constitutionally protected activities such as photography and political speech,” Michael Price wrote at Salon. Officers in California often report on “suspicious” activities that amount to little more than standing around at bus or train stations, or talking at length on public phones.   read more

A career Foreign Service Officer who has spent the bulk of his career fighting the so-called “war on drugs” is set to be the next ambassador to the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica, home to more than 29,000 Rastafarians, who regard the smoking of marijuana a holy sacrament. On February 29, 2004, it was Moreno who accompanied Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the airport when he was forced out of office in a military coup.   read more

For two decades, the Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC) has received millions of taxpayer dollars from the U.S. Department of Education to hound former students into paying their student loans—even when they’ve already paid off their debt or run into financial troubles stemming from serious health problems. ECMC’s egregious behavior has been particularly evident in trying to stop student loan holders from gaining bankruptcy protection.   read more

The 36-year-old put himself through college and Cal Northern School of Law. Garcia was working as a paralegal when he applied to the bar. He passed the examination on his first try in 2009. His father, a naturalized U.S. citizen, applied for his son’s legal residency in 1994. Garcia was put on a waiting list and was told he could get his green card in six years. He’s still waiting.   read more

Major newspapers in the United States and the United Kingdom have come out in support of Edward Snowden, calling on President Barack Obama to go easy on the National Security Agency whistleblower living in exile in Russia. In the view of The New York Times, The Guardian and other news outlets, Snowden is a hero for exposing NSA spying operations that have compromised the privacy of millions of people around the world.   read more

After spending a few hours of research and even fewer dollars, the student snoopers identified names for 91 out of 100 numbers. Their conclusion? “If a few academic researchers can get this far this quickly, it’s difficult to believe the NSA would have any trouble identifying the overwhelming majority of American phone numbers.”   read more

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, La Lime lived in Angola as a child because her father worked for Texaco. La Lime has been detailed to the Defense Department since 2011, serving as director of Outreach for the United States Africa Command. She served as ambassador to Mozambique from April 2003 to December 2006 and in South Africa from 2006 to 2011.   read more

In the case of Portland, Medicaid took care of certain out-of-pocket costs the previously uninsured Americans had to pay themselves, making it easier for them to utilize ERs. White House sSpokeswoman Tara McGuinness dismissed the findings of the study, claiming its timeframe (18 months) was too short to show that ER use will decline in time. Indeed, for many uninsured people, the emergency room is almost their only experience with formal health care.   read more

Professor Steven Sherwood at the University of New South Wales said the research reveals how climate change is impacting clouds, and consequently, increasing the likelihood of higher air temperatures in the coming decades. The warming of the planet results in fewer clouds, which in turn allows for less sunlight to be reflected by clouds back out toward space, causing temperatures to rise even more.   read more

The senator who logged the most speaking time was Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who spent much of his time railing against federal spending or plans to reform immigration. Sessions talked for more than 33 hours last year. His speaking total eclipsed that of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), who recorded about 30 hours on C-SPAN.   read more

Vodka drinkers tend to be Democrats, while whiskey lovers trend Republican. Tequila and Jagermeister indicate a non-voter. Rum, meanwhile, is bipartisan, with Bacardi and Captain Morgan Spiced Rum enjoyed by members of both parties.   read more

The Southern African nation of Zambia will soon have a new ambassador in the person of Eric T. Schultz, a longtime diplomat who most recently served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, from 2010 to 2013. From 2004 to 2007, Schultz was deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, and served as minister counselor for Economic Affairs at the embassy in Moscow, Russia, from 2007 to 2009.   read more

Rakoff noted that in the wake of the 1980s savings-and-loan crisis, “which again had some eerie parallels to more recent events,” the government successfully prosecuted more than 800 individuals, including Charles Keating, the former head of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, who became the face of Wall Street’s misdeeds and punishment.   read more

Law enforcement agencies had previously been mandated to destroy records of all “long gun” transactions within 10 days. Now with the adoption of AB 809, those agencies are required to track the make, model and serial number of such weapons, as well as the identity and address of the gun owners. The only way to avoid getting put into a state database, critics said, was to purchase their weapons by December 31. Many seemed to do just that.   read more

Life in this part of the state has already become dangerous for the Amish, who travel about in horse-drawn buggies, several of which have been involved in deadly accidents with the growing number of oil trucks. At least three dozen Amish families have reportedly sold their royalty rights or their lands altogether and now plan to move to Pennsylvania or New York.   read more