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

Reuters reported that RSA included in its BSAFE software a flawed formula for generating random numbers developed by the NSA. In exchange, the company received $10 million. EMC Corp., which now owns RSA, informed customers to stop using the NSA formula after leaks by whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed its vulnerability. RSA has “categorically” denied the allegation that it had secret deal with the NSA involving the random number generator.   read more

The plaintiffs argued that the administration was discriminating against them based on their political viewpoints—an argument Judge Allen Baddour seemed to agree with. Baddour determined that there was no difference between the groups that want to protest cuts to unemployment benefits and the state's decision not to expand Medicaid and other demonstrations that had used the Capitol grounds, aside from the content of their speech.   read more

Attorney Robert Spence, who is representing the plaintiff, Jane Doe, says his client was raped 12 years ago, but her kit was never tested to help find the culprit. He also said the man who raped Jane Doe committed multiple rapes after his client’s sexual assault. By not processing the rape kits, police violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, Spence claims.   read more

The video, a type of mock documentary, was intended to make fun of youth culture in Dubai. It portrayed a fictional training facility, the Satwa Combat School, which taught students how to use sandals as weapons. The filmmakers said they wanted to satirize mild-mannered teenagers in Dubai who enjoy acting like “gangstas.” UAE officials didn’t think the video was funny.   read more

The Obama administration insists federal courts should stop hearing cases challenging the agency’s warrantless surveillance on grounds that they might expose the existence of this spying. Last week, federal lawyers asked a judge, Jeffrey S. White, in Northern California to dismiss cases that could lead to a ruling on the constitutionality of warrantless surveillance programs.   read more

PepsiCo settled one such lawsuit in August over its use of the phrases “All Natural,” “All Natural Fruit” and “Non-GMO” on bottles of Naked Juices. The company said it would remove “All Natural” from the drinks’ packaging and pay consumers $9 million. However, PepsiCo will still use “non-GMO” on the juices, even though they are not certified as such.   read more

As of December 23, a total of 102 police had been killed in 2013. That’s the lowest amount since 1944, when 90 officers died. The leading cause of death for law enforcement has been traffic accidents, but even those are going down. Forty-four officers were killed in vehicular-related incidents this year, down from 48 in 2012 and 62 in 2011. Officials attribute the decline to improved training for police who get behind the wheel.   read more

Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas said at the time that they were out to clean up local politics. But those targeted in the investigations claimed Arpaio was getting back at them for opposing his policies. A former supervisor, Don Stapley, received $3.5 million to end his case against the county. Another settlement worth $3.75 million went to Phoenix New Times founders Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, who were targeted by Arpaio.   read more

Created in 1965 as part of the Department of Commerce, EDA uses grants and cooperative agreements to encourage private investment in economically distressed regions, hoping to create and maintain high-skilled, high-paying jobs. The EDA was headed by Assistant Secretary John Fernandez until he resigned on March 2, 2012, and he has not been replaced. At the good end of the scale, the top-ranked agency is the Surface Transportation Board..   read more

Although 1,168 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) contractors owe a combined $589 million in back taxes, the agency paid them about $741 million between October 2010 and June 2012, and continues to resist a key reform proposed two years ago, according to a report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).   read more

Less than a week after a Utah state judge struck down key portions of the state’s anti-polygamy law, a federal judge in Utah invalidated its anti-gay marriage ban, holding that the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process under the law forbid states from denying marriage rights to gays that it gives straights.   read more

When 2013 began, members of Congress must have intended to have a productive year. After all, they introduced 6,366 pieces of legislation. But 12 months later, with the session almost over, lawmakers managed to pass less than 1% of these bills. As of December 21, the House and Senate had approved only 58 measures. This output was the lowest for a single year since 1947.   read more

Enrollment at law schools for 2013-2014 was 39,675 students, according to the American Bar Association. The last time there were fewer students studying law was 1975-1976, when enrollment was 39,038. The current enrollment total was 11% lower than last year’s mark of 44,481, and a 24% drop from just three years ago. ABA officials say the weak job market for lawyers has discouraged many students from pursuing the legal profession.   read more

This expansion does not sit well with everyone. Some residents note that campus police officers don’t undergo the same amount of training as regular police, and yet, they’re patrolling city streets. Furthermore, private schools aren’t required under public records laws to release the same information as public institutions, which means a lack of accountability for certain campus police.   read more

The federal government’s court system for labor-related grievances is suffering from a shortage of judges and a growing abundance of cases. Ten years ago, the Office of Administrative Law Judges (OALJ) employed 53 judges. Today, that total has fallen to just 35 (and one part-time judge). Meanwhile, the department’s new cases have soared by 68% in the past five years. Pending cases have experienced an even bigger growth: 134%.   read more

The independent panel members further stated that the “telephony meta-data program has made only a modest contribution to the nation’s security…and there has been no instance in which NSA could say with confidence that the outcome would have been different without the section 215 telephony meta-data program.”   read more