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

In the Brazilian case, a group of hackers upset over the recent revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on their country decided to infiltrate a U.S. government website. Only it wasn’t the NSA’s website that got hacked—it was NASA’s (short for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Among the pages hit were those for the Center for Astrobiology and the Office of Planetary Protection.   read more

The surfacing of the report follows the deadly attack at the DC Navy Yard, where contractor Aaron Alexis used his access card to enter a building and kill 12 civilians and injure many more. He was in the employ of The Experts, a Hewlett-Packard IT subcontractor, whose job was to perform maintenance on the Navy Marine Corps Intranet, the department’s in-house system. Alexis had a history of gun-related arrests and mental health issues before the attack.   read more

The largest store of chemical munitions exists at Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado, which has 2,611 tons of mustard gas. Officials there expect to finish dismantling this collection by 2019. Another 523 tons of VX and sarin remain at Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky. The government is still building a facility at the depot for disposing the weapons, which should be destroyed by 2023.   read more

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives considered a bill last year that would require more transparency and evaluation of all foreign aid programs, including military assistance. But administration officials lobbied the bill’s authors to exempt security assistance from the mandate. The U.S. spends about $25 billion annually on security assistance.   read more

The building in question, located at 650 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan, is owned by the Alavi Foundation and Assa Corp. The U.S. Attorney based in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, argued before a federal judge that Assa Corp. was nothing more than a front for Bank Melli, which was said to be a front for the government of Iran.   read more

Eagan’s ruling is the first to be written on this matter since the secret NSA program was disclosed in June by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Whereas previous secret FISC rulings routinely re-authorized the program with little more than a minor reference to its legal underpinning, Eagan’s opinion was written with its eventual public disclosure in mind.   read more

This situation has existed for decades since the country closed down many large psychiatric hospitals in the 1970s. Community-based care was supposed to take the place of the hospitals, but that didn’t develop as planned. The result: thousands of mentally ill wound up on the streets, where they got into trouble and landed in the only place that could take them: jails. The U.S. Department of Justice says up to 64% of inmates at local jails have mental health problems.   read more

More than half of the 62 shootings took place either at a workplace (20) or a school (12). Forty-four of the killers were white males. Only one shooter was a woman: Jennifer San Marco (Goleta, California, in 2006.) The average age of the killers was 35. The youngest shooter was only 11 years old: Andrew Douglas Golden (Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 1998.)   read more

ATF decided to take this step after realizing the number of legal entities in the gun trade that were not federal firearms licensees had ballooned from about 840 in 2000 to 40,700 in 2012. The reason for the increase, according to ATF, is a growth in the number of trusts.   read more

Some drug-resistant bacteria are becoming widespread, although they haven’t killed a significant number of people yet. One type, known as CRE (carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae), was found in healthcare facilities in 44 states. On the one hand, CRE causes only 600 fatalities each year. But on the other, this type of bacteria has become resistant to nearly all antibiotics on the market, leaving doctors with no real solutions for stopping it.   read more

By far the most popular venue is The Capitol Hill Club, a purely Republican site that plays host to nearly 2,000 fundraising parties per year. A distant second is Johnny’s Half Shell, which entertains 861 bashes annually—two-thirds for Democrats and a third for Republicans. The top 10 venues account for 44% of all DC fundraisers.   read more

IHS Jane’s says the rebels include 10,000 jihadists with ties to al-Qaeda, as well as another 30,000 to 35,000 hardliners who see eye-to-eye with the jihadists, although they are focused on toppling Assad and not on a global struggle against the West. “The insurgency is now dominated by groups which have at least an Islamist viewpoint on the conflict,” Charles Lister, author of the study, wrote. “The idea that it is mostly secular groups leading the opposition is just not borne out.”   read more

More than 100 committees and subcommittees claim jurisdiction over DHS. This results in the agency spending inordinate amount of time just responding to congressional requests, instead of focusing on potential threats. “Think of having 100 bosses,” said Kean. “Think of reporting to 100 people. It makes no sense. You could not do your job under those circumstances.” In 2009 alone, the agency spent the equivalent of 66 “work-years” responding to congressional inquiries.   read more

Supporters of the controversial plan said providing undocumented immigrants with driver’s licenses would make California roads safer, improve national security and allow immigrants to fully contribute to the state economy. The bill passed with overwhelming support, 28-8 in the state Senate and 55-19 in the Assembly.   read more

U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill temporarily halted the shipment of an oversized water treatment system on U.S. Highway 12 that was bound for Canada’s tar sands fields. Winmill said the government must first conduct a study of environmental, economic and tribal impacts before the equipment move can proceed.   read more

Over the Labor Day weekend, another 20,000 gallons was stolen from the county, this time from the Bridgeville Elementary School. The thief pumped the school’s water tank dry using a garden house and either a water truck or a trailer fitted with tanks, according to police. School officials were forced to cancel school for the day, while maintenance workers replenished the tank with water from an underground well.   read more