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 1996, 34% of public college grants went to low-income students, while only 16% was given to higher-income students. By 2012, low-income students were still receiving a larger percentage of grants than wealthier students, but just barely. That’s because the share of aid going to poorer students had declined to 25%, while the portion going to higher income students rose to 23%.   read more

There’s still plenty of helium in the ground at this reserve, about 370 billion liters of it. But Congress will have to reauthorize the reserve in order for it to sell helium next month and beyond. Helium is essential for all kinds of industries, including aerospace, the military, electronics manufacturing, medical imaging and others.   read more

Some IRS videos made for agency employees have been in a humorous vein, such as parodies of “The Apprentice” and “Gilligan’s Island.” But budget-cutting GOP lawmakers haven’t found anything funny with the IRS spending money on these videos, leading to repeated criticisms. The four-minute takeoff of “The Apprentice” reportedly cost $10,000.   read more

A report issued by the USDA Inspector General shows that the program has proven to be a disaster for the health and safety of American and foreign consumers alike. Among the five U.S. facilities participating in the test program, three of them landed on the government’s list of the 10 worst offenders in the country for health and safety violations, including failures to remove fecal matter from meat In addition, the plant with the worst record was one of the five in the pilot program.   read more

The United States has some seriously “dirty” power plants that contribute more towards the problem of global warming than the vast majority of countries in the world. A report by Environment America concluded 50 American power plants—mostly those burning coal—produce more greenhouse gases than all but six nations (China, the U.S., India, Russia, Japan and Germany). The “50 dirtiest power plants” generated nearly 33% of the U.S. power sector’s carbon dioxide emissions in 2011.   read more

The National Security Agency (NSA) during the last years of the George W. Bush administration committed “flagrant” violations of Americans’ privacy rights by conducting illegal searches of phone records, according to newly disclosed government documents. The Obama administration released 14 documents that showed a judge serving on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court reprimanded the NSA four years ago for going through the phone records of Americans without proper authorization.   read more

Wealth disparity between the rich and everyone else in the United States has reached a new extreme, according to an economic study out of the University of California, Berkeley (UCB). Last year, the top 10% of American society received more than half of the country’s total income, which was the highest level on record, economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty reported in their study. They also found that the top 1% of earners collected more than 20% of all U.S. income in 2012.   read more

Residents of Iowa don’t need 20/20 vision to legally own firearms or carry them in public. In fact, they don’t have to possess the ability to see at all. For at least two years now, Iowans who are legally or completely blind have been entitled to receive permits for gun purchases. They also can obtain permits to carry firearms into public places. The Des Moines Register reported that visually impaired citizens have been able to own guns for quite some time.   read more

The intelligence assessment released by the White House to support President Barack Obama’s case for attacking Syria did not necessarily reflect all of the government’s spy agencies’ views on the subject of Syrian chemical warfare. Rather it reflected “a predominantly Obama administration influence. One former official, choosing to remain anonymous, told IPS in an email that the administration may have “cherry-picked the intelligence” to fit its position on Syria.   read more

About 130 million Americans own smartphones, which from a personal privacy perspective aren’t all that smart given the National Security Agency’s (NSA) ability to pry into them. Secret NSA documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden have revealed to the German newspaper Der Spiegel that the U.S. government spends a lot of time thinking about and finding ways to infiltrate smartphones. The government can obtain all kinds of information about a person by hacking into just a single phone.   read more

The Obama administration has been accused of subverting the law and violating civil liberties by using border crossings as an opportunity to seize the personal property of individuals not accused of committing any crime. A fundraiser for the legal defense of Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Private Bradley Manning, David House had his laptop, camera, thumb drive and cellphone seized by border patrol agents upon returning from a trip to Mexico in November 2010.   read more

Suspicion has lasted for decades over the mysterious crash of the plane carrying the United Nations’ top official more than 50 years ago. A new investigation of the accident says evidence may exist that could prove the aircraft was shot down, and that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) could possess some of this evidence.   read more

New York City decided to dust off its old, non-computerized voting machines and use them in time for Tuesday’s local elections. The move was prompted after some local leaders lost confidence with the newer, electronic voting machines that encountered troubles during the 2012 election. The state legislature and the NYC Board of Elections authorized 5,100 lever voting machines to come out of retirement, undergo maintenance and be set up in voting precincts for the September 10 balloting.   read more

In the month of May, petroleum operations in the U.S. surpassed the total amount of oil being imported. The nation last experienced this turnaround in January 1997. American output is so strong that if it continues on this pace, the U.S. will pass Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest petroleum producer before 2020, according to a forecast by the International Energy Agency.   read more

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has been accused of spying on Brazil’s state-run oil company, according to a news report from the South American country’s largest television network. The implication is that not all NSA espionage has to do with fighting terrorists or even criminals.   read more

The biggest culprit, experts say, are cars and other forms of road transportation. Vehicles were found to cause 53,000 early fatalities, followed by power plants with 52,000. Steven Barrett, an MIT assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics who took part in the study, said a premature death was defined as one occurring about 10 years earlier due to exposure to air pollution than might otherwise happen.   read more