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

Byrne also found that 20% of the portfolio was sold to business partners or clients of CBRE, while it took up to a 6% commission in 34 of the 52 transactions. CBRE appeared to act as an agent for both the Postal Service and buyers in many of the transactions, contrary to customary property sales, according to Byrne.   read more

The bank countered that the case should be dismissed because the three-year statute of limitations in the False Claim Act began ticking when the HUD inspector general learned about the alleged fraud in 2004. Justice Department attorneys retorted that the clock started when the attorney general discovered the misconduct in 2011, and that the Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act (WSLA) extended the clock to 10 years anyway.   read more

A lifelong Democrat, Sherman has donated more than $80,000 to Democratic candidates and organizations, including $27,000 to the Democratic National Committee. He was a member of Obama for America and served on its national finance committee, raising at least $500,000 for Obama. In January 2013, President Obama appointed Sherman to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.   read more

In the case filed in federal court in San Jose, a group of named plaintiffs have sued Google for violating the federal Wiretap Act by scanning emails sent or received via its Gmail service for words and content, and intentionally intercepting messages between non-Gmail subscribers and subscribers. “The ruling means federal and state wiretap laws apply to the internet. It’s a tremendous victory for online privacy."   read more

SEC Chair Mary Jo White had to recuse herself from the case because she had previously worked for Debevoise & Plimpton LLC, which had performed services for JPMorgan. Likewise, Republican Commissioner Daniel Gallagher had to beg off from being involved in the settlement because his former employer, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, had done work for the bank.   read more

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began using unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in 2006. the agency didn’t bother to develop privacy guidelines before utilizing the unmanned aircraft. The FBI told the IG’s office that it didn’t see the need to create drone-specific policies because officials felt UAS’s weren’t really different from manned aircraft, for which policies already exist.   read more

Forcing soldiers to remove offensive tattoos is a definite escalation from current regulations, which allow the Army to urge removal but not require it. The definition of “offensive” tattoos includes those that are racist, sexist, or indecent, i.e., “grossly offensive to modesty, decency, or propriety.” Although such vague definitions would be unconstitutional if applied to civilian life, those in the military have greatly circumscribed rights to self-expression.   read more

A United Nations-sponsored panel of international scientists that convened in Stockholm says it is 95% certain that humans are the “dominant cause” of global warming over the last six decades. That leaves about a 5% chance for the naysayers to clutch onto. But really, experts insist, more than half of the planet’s temperature increases have been caused by humans during the past six decades.   read more

The Democratic lawmaker is willing to broaden the agency’s power to wiretap without court approval a foreigner’s cellphone for at least one week when that person travels to the United States. Critics of the NSA’s domestic surveillance have called for ending the phone-records program altogether. These advocates include two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, who have introduced a tougher reform bill.   read more

“These revelations raise the obvious question: If the NSA was targeting people like Sen. Frank Church, who were in a position to oversee the NSA—is that happening now? That is, are people like intelligence committee chairs Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and other congressional leaders—who are supposed to be providing oversight themselves—compromised in some way by the NSA?   read more

Wagar has been active in Democratic politics since the 1990s, and has donated more than $220,000 to numerous Democratic candidates and causes, including more than $110,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC). He raised money for Janet Reno’s failed 2002 gubernatorial run, and he was the DNC’s Florida finance chair during John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. He was Obama’s Florida finance chairman in 2008 and 2012, hauling in more than $1 million for the president in each election.   read more

The Farmers Assurance Provision, which critics labeled the “Monsanto Protection Act,” would have allowed biotechnology companies like Monsanto to sell GMO seeds to farmers even after a court blocked their sale. But members of the Senate prevented the plan from being included in a House continuing resolution used to keep the government funded.   read more

Many of the Fortune 500 companies are double dippers—meaning they’ve been awarded federal deals for both large and small businesses. Lockheed Martin is one example. Ranked 59th in the Fortune 500, Lockheed is the federal government’s largest vendor, which didn’t stop it from collecting more than $110 million in small business contracts in FYs 2012 and 2013.   read more

In April—several months after Shell’s oil rig difficulties in the Arctic—environmentalists hailed ConocoPhillips’ announcement that it had decided against drilling in the region next year, which cited uncertainties of federal regulations as the reason. But now, only five months later, the company’s drone mission into the region suggests that its decision may have been reversed.   read more

The bill would prohibit the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act (pdf), and prevent the agency from restarting a program that ended in 2011 that gathered Internet communication records. It also seeks to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to make its secretive process more transparent and accountable by creating a “constitutional advocate” position that could challenge court decisions on privacy grounds.   read more

ATF agents failed to properly account for 2.1 million cartons containing 420 million cigarettes as part of the agency’s undercover operations, according to the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (IG). The missing cartons had a retail value of $127 million. The IG’s office also reported that ATF paid an informant more than $4.9 million without requiring him to account for his expenses.   read more