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

Known as the Hemisphere Project, the government has paid AT&T to place its employees in drug-fighting units around the U.S., helping DEA agents and local police by supplying them with the phone data from as far back as 1987. Whereas the NSA claims it stores its phone-call data for only five years, the Hemisphere Project includes calls dating back 26 years. It also covers every call that passes through an AT&T switch, not just those made by AT&T customers.   read more

If arrested and placed in the back of police car, anything said by a suspect can be used against them in court, including remarks captured on video. Numerous individuals in Florida have learned this lesson the hard way. Miranda rights inform suspects that they don’t have to say anything to police after being apprehended. This applies not only in an interrogation room at a police station, but also in the rear of a cop car.   read more

Michael Sivak wrote for the American Scientist. “I have estimated that in metropolitan Mumbai [India] alone, the large population and hot climate combine to create a potential energy demand for cooling that is about a quarter of the current demand of the entire United States.”   read more

Microsoft and Google each filed litigation in June citing their rights under the First Amendment to explain their roles in the NSA intel gathering. This move was vital, the companies argued, to refute criticism that they had collaborated in the snooping. But after getting nowhere with these initial legal maneuvers, the Internet giants decided to join forces.   read more

The games draw significant online audiences, up to 1.7 million unique viewers. By comparison, a typical National Hockey League game on network television last season drew a quarter of that audience. The World Championship final for League of Legends will be held October 4, at Los Angeles’ Staples Center, home of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Kings. The winning team will take home $1 million.   read more

Whoever said that crime doesn’t pay, never broke the law for the National Security Agency. According to documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the spy agency forked over millions of dollars to several major Internet companies after some of their surveillance work was ruled illegal. But the real puzzle is why the web giants—which include Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook—were entitled to the money in the first place.   read more

The ruling came in the case of Kubert v. Best. Linda and David Kubert both lost their left legs when their motorcycle was struck in September 2009 by 18-year-old Kyle Best, who got distracted while texting with longtime friend Shannon Colonna, then seventeen. After settling their lawsuit with Best, the Kuberts sought damages from Colonna, claiming that her texting to Best while he was driving was negligent and caused their injuries. The appeals court agreed with the Kuberts—up to a point.   read more

“[T]he results from the first 12 months [were] striking. Even with only half of the 54 uniformed police officers wearing cameras on any given day, the department overall had an 88 percent decline in the number of complaints filed against officers, compared with the 12 months before the study.” Perhaps not surprisingly, the study found that officers with cameras used force 60% less often.   read more

From 2000 to 2003, Koskinen served as deputy mayor and city administrator of Washington, D.C., and from 2004 to 2008, he was president of the United States Soccer Foundation, which is the major charitable arm for soccer in the U.S. In the wake of the collapse of the mortgage bubble and resulting crisis, Koskinen served as non-executive chairman of Freddie Mac from 2008 to 2011, including a stint as acting CEO in 2009.   read more

In the latest revelation provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden, it is now known that the federal government pays 35,000 civilian and military specialists to break and decipher encrypted messages sent across the Internet. 21% of the intelligence budget (about $11 billion) is dedicated to the Consolidated Cryptologic Program that staffs 35,000 employees in the NSA and components of the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines.   read more

The law, which is apparently the first of its kind in the U.S., requires makers of prescription drug sold or distributed in Alameda County, California, to fund and operate product stewardship programs allowing consumers to turn in unused medicines safely, rather than flushing them down the toilet and into the water supply or letting them hit the streets. Failure to comply carries up to a $1,000 per day fine.   read more

When the power grid was designed, electric power generation was dominated by large power plants burning fossil fuels or splitting atoms, and high capacity transmission lines were placed only near them. Wind farms, however, are typically located in sparsely populated areas or even off-shore, where high capacity lines do not exist. Bottlenecks also occur when more energy is being produced than the system can safely transport.   read more

Beginning next month departments will have the option of selling found or unclaimed weapons to a licensed firearms dealer. But some police departments, particularly those in large cities like San Antonio, Houston and Austin, have said they will not sell the weapons and will continue destroying them to keep them from falling into the wrong hands.   read more

James was the executive vice president and chief operating officer at Business Executives for National Security (BENS), an organization representing more than 350 corporations that lobbies for more spending on homeland and national security programs—which its members then profit from by obtaining government contracts. BENS “has been a driving force in the privatization of U.S. defense capabilities, including the outsourcing of the precious intelligence assets.”   read more

The Swiss banking industry can avoid being probed by the Justice Department if they agree to pay substantial penalties; disclose all of their cross-border activities; provide detailed information on an account-by-account basis for accounts in which U.S. taxpayers have a direct or indirect interest; cooperate in treaty requests for account information; and agree to close accounts of account holders who fail to come into compliance with U.S. reporting obligations.   read more

The annual suicide rate for veterans is about 30 for every 100,000 people, while the rate among non-military is about 14 per 100,000, according to News21. Today, nearly one out of every five suicides in the U.S. involves a veteran—even though veterans make up only 10% of the adult population.   read more