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

Most startling, perhaps, is that the problems at Dorn had been identified by the VA two years ago and Congress appropriated $1 million, at the VA’s request, to fix them. Yet, according to documents reviewed by CNN, only a third of those funds were used for their intended purpose. Meanwhile, the waiting list continued to grow, reaching 3,800 as of December 2011.   read more

The United States has been spying on British citizens for at least six years now, despite a multilateral treaty banning such surveillance. The National Security Agency (NSA) has been collecting the phone, Internet and email records of United Kingdom citizens not suspected of any wrongdoing—and all with the blessing of British intelligence.   read more

The Education Department has made so much money off student loans that these earnings comprised nearly 50% of the agency’s total outlays last year, the biggest share in 16 years. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has been able to request fewer dollars from Congress for his department’s budget because it is so flush with cash from student loans.   read more

Many drivers apparently were not made aware that it was a voluntary process. Furthermore, it was later discovered that the consent forms they were told to sign included fine print that “passive alcohol sensor readings” had been conducted “before the consent process has been completed.” In other words, secret sensors were being employed to test motorists’ breath without their knowledge or consent.   read more

In light of the fact that Connecticut case law holds that trial judges need not explain what factors they considered or how they calculated alimony in their written decisions, the complaint argues that, “meaningful judicial review of trial court awards of alimony is impossible.” The Supreme Court has long held that a statute is unconstitutional if it so vague that an appeals court cannot determine if a trial court’s decision is consistent with it or not.   read more

After months of negotiations between Washington and Kabul, Afghanistan’s top leader, President Hamid Karzai, reportedly signaled to the U.S. that he would support a continuation of the American military mission in his country beyond next year, and even accept U.S. Special Forces raiding private homes. But Karzai wanted something first: a letter from President Barack Obama apologizing for the harm that U.S. forces have brought on Afghan civilians over the past 12 years.   read more

Any hesitancy that Kollar-Kotelly may have indicated in giving approval to the program was outweighed by the assumption of a legitimate need on the part of the George W. Bush administration. “Deference should be given to the fully considered judgment of the executive branch in assessing and responding to national security threats and in determining the potential significance of intelligence-related information,” she wrote.   read more

Alaskan Natives are treated differently under federal law than Native Americans elsewhere. Not only has the Alaskan government managed to obtain court rulings that Alaska Natives have no “Indian Country” over which to exercise public safety jurisdiction, but Alaska’s legislators frequently get Congress to exempt Alaska from Indian law reforms. In 2012, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski inserted language into the Violence Against Women Act ensuring that its reforms would not apply to Alaska Natives.   read more

Anthera was also required to survey all patients six months after the end of the trial period to see if they were still alive. But the company collected that data for only 31% of the patients, which made it impossible to gauge whether the drug increased the risk of death. The trial was terminated by a safety monitoring committee after early results showed patients who got the drug actually had a higher risk of cardiovascular problems, mainly heart attacks, than those who received a placebo.   read more

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives now want to limit what TSA does with the money. They have introduced legislation, H.R. 1095, the TSA Loose Change Act (pdf), which would require the agency to donate the coinage to charities that “provide certain travel-related assistance to military personnel and their families.”   read more

The federal government must release documents explaining how, when and why it might decide to shut down the nation’s wireless networks because of a “national crisis,” U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled last week. Boasberg added that the Government’s only recourse—aside from an appeal to the D.C. Circuit—is to get Congress to change the FOIA. The judge ordered DHS to release SOP 303 within 30 days.   read more

In one case cited in the report, the U.S. Army managed to lose $5.8 billion from 2003 to 2011 on equipment and supplies that were supposed to be sent to reserve and regular units. In another case, Reuters found that various military divisions had signed contracts for new orders of supplies that they already had in excess, often up to three years’ worth.   read more

Sotomayor mentioned some of the strange justifications cited by Alabama judges in overriding jury verdicts. In one case, the judge noted that a defendant who had an IQ of 65 “intentionally test[ed] low on standard IQ tests.” In another case, a judge up for reelection when he sentenced a 19-year-old defendant said, “If I had not imposed the death sentence, I would have sentenced three black people to death and no white people.”   read more

One physician singled out by ProPublica was Dr. Hew Wah Quon, whose practice is in Los Angeles’ Chinatown. Quon wrote $27 million in prescriptions from 2009 to 2011 for his mostly low-income patients. But he largely prescribed branded medications. Had he recommended available generics instead, Medicare would have saved $5 million from this one doctor alone.   read more

One longtime Canton store employee—who requested her name not be used for fear of being fired—found the Walmart campaign “demoralizing” and “kind of depressing.” “Why would a company do that?” OUR Walmart strike organizer Vanessa Ferreira said to the Plain Dealer. “The company needs to stand up and give them their 40 hours and a living wage, so they don't have to worry about whether they can afford Thanksgiving.”   read more

An overwhelming majority of Americans support efforts to raise the minimum wage, according to a new national poll. Gallup says 76% of respondents to a survey conducted November 5-6 back a plan to increase the minimum wage from the current $7.25 to $9 an hour. A similar percentage (69%) said they would also support a bump to $9/hour plus automatic increases based on the inflation rate.   read more