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 focus of the legal and diplomatic controversy is Edgar Tamayo Arias, 46, who shot and killed 24-year-old officer Guy Gaddis on January 31, 1994, while being escorted to jail following a robbery. Tamayo was in the U.S. illegally, but still had the right to contact the Mexican Consulate after being arrested. But Texas never informed him of this right, which put the U.S. in violation of an international agreement: the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.   read more

The transit police officer injured the ring finger—of his non-shooting hand—seven years ago while target practicing at a shooting range. Using a staple gun to secure his target to its mark, Onesti accidentally put a single staple in his digit. the state decided he was “totally and permanently disabled.” This meant he could no longer handle a gun or perform duties as a New Jersey Transit cop. And yet, he still visits the shooting range, firing an Austrian-made sniper rifle.   read more

Among married women ages 40 to 44, about 6% had no children of any kind (biological, adopted or step kids) from 2006 to 2010, according to the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University, which examined figures from the National Survey of Family Growth. Six percent may not sound like a big number, but experts told the Los Angeles Times that the figure was still significant, statistically speaking, given that the rate was only 4.5% in 1988.   read more

Akuetteh served two straight stints as embassy deputy chief of mission, first at the embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from 2005 to 2007, and then at the embassy in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from 2007 to 2009. From 2009 to 2011, Akuetteh was the director in the Office of Central African Affairs, and from 2011 to 2012, she was the director in the Office of Europe, Middle East and Africa in the Bureau of Energy Resources.   read more

FDA officials claimed a voluntary approach would be the quickest way to implement the rules. Michael Taylor, the FDA’s top food safety official, told the media that making compliance mandatory would have created “legalistic, product-by-product regulatory proceedings that would take years to complete.” It is estimated that 23,000 Americans die every year from antibiotic-resistant infections.   read more

ALEC boasts having members in statehouses throughout the United States. But in two states—Iowa and South Dakota—it has managed to sign up every single lawmaker, according to documents from an ALEC board meeting on August 6. The South Dakota legislature’s executive board, in April, voted for the state’s treasury to pay the $100, two-year ALEC membership dues for all 105 lawmakers, as well as the cost of unlimited out-of-state travel to ALEC meetings for those who are ALEC committee members.   read more

The Obama administration spent $486 million to purchase the aircraft, which were supposed to comprise 15% of the Afghan Air Force. A key problem was that the planes couldn’t handle the heat and dust of Afghanistan’s environment, which caused numerous maintenance troubles and prevented them from flying. Davis said the Air Force tried to sell the aircraft to another country, but couldn’t locate any buyers. So now they will be dismantled for parts.   read more

When, in February 2007, Stephanie Lenz posted a 29-second video of her toddler on YouTube, she included an audio clip from the Prince song “Let’s Go Crazy.” Common use of a recorded, copyrighted song is nothing new on the Internet, as countless individuals have done the same thing with their video content. But Universal Music Group, which owns the rights to the hit tune from 1984, objected to Lenz’s action, and demanded she take down the video.   read more

A 2008 NSA document (“Exploiting Terrorist Use of Games & Virtual Environments”) described gaming communities as a “target-rich communications network” where threats could “hide in plain sight.” These realms seemed so attractive, in fact, that the NSA, GCHQ, the Department of Defense and the Federal Bureau of Investigation dove into them, which forced the government to create a “deconfliction” group to make sure agents weren’t spying on each other.   read more

From 2001 to 2011, renters with very low incomes (those making less than $20,000 annually) increased in number by three million to 11.8 million, according to a report (pdf) by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard. During the same time period, the number of affordable apartments held steady at about seven million. In 2000, the share of renters paying more than 30% of their income for housing was 38%. By 2010, the share had risen to 50%.   read more

Oil giant BP continued to receive federal contracts even after paying $20 million in safety violation fees following a 2005 Texas refinery explosion that killed 15 employees. The report was also critical of the fact that a major federal contractor database said nothing about allegations of BP’s misconduct with regard to that event or the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.   read more

Although Camez is considered a small-time crook, the jury’s verdict under RICO made him legally culpable for all the crimes committed by the nearly 8,000 users of Carder.su. The government concluded that those crimes amount to $50.5 million in losses, which resulted in the lengthy sentence. Camez was trapped by the government in 2009 as part of a four-year undercover Secret Service operation that involved the infiltration of Carder.su.   read more

Christoph Oschwald, co-director of the data center Mount10, told AFP that people used to ask why they should pay for data storage when Google, Apple and other tech firms offer it at no cost. But since the revelations about NSA’s access to user data within those services, no one asks any longer. Demand for his company’s services has been “fantastic,” having “tripled within a very short time.”   read more

Privateer has invested in growers, processors or distributors in Canada, but is waiting for the opportunity to do the same in the United States, where two states so far—Colorado and Washington—have decriminalized recreational marijuana use. Moen’s job—managing director of compliance and senior counsel of Privateer—will be to use his law enforcement knowledge and legal skills (he’s also a lawyer) to help guide Privateer’s investments and make sure they don’t break the law.   read more

Since 2005, the 20 top intelligence companies have contributed $3.7 million to members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, according to Maplight, a government watchdog organization. This might help to explain why these two committees have stalled legislation by other members of Congress to reform NSA surveillance programs.   read more

"I’ll be proposing some self-restraint on the N.S.A., and you know, to initiate some reforms that can give people more confidence,” Obama said last week on the MSNBC program “Hardball.” However, the key phrase in Obama’s statement—“self-restraint”—implies that he has no intention of regulating the NSA and that the spy agency will still be free to do whatever it wants.   read more