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

Sarah Blakemore, director of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), a campaign working to ban the weapons, noted that the U.S.-Saudi Arabia deal comes at a time when the two countries have condemned Syria’s use of cluster bombs against rebels trying to topple the regime of Bashar al-Assad.   read more

Critics of the decision said it would deny a large portion of the federal workforce some due process rights. They also warned that agencies could use the ruling to punish employees without worrying about the MSPB getting in the way. The administration proposal refers to a new regulation under consideration that would allow the government to categorize virtually any federal position as national security “sensitive” and therefore outside the civil service system rule of law.   read more

On September 1, the city’s mayor will once again oversee the police. Not since 1861 have city leaders controlled those responsible for maintaining law and order in Missouri’s second largest city. The city lost its authority over the police just before the outbreak of the Civil War, when pro-South politicians wanted to keep Union sympathizers in St. Louis from gaining power.   read more

President Barack Obama has nominated an Indian-American woman to be the next assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia Affairs. Assistant administrator for Asia at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) since September 2010, Nisha Desai Biswal will be the first person of South Asian origin to head the bureau.   read more

“The court is troubled that the government’s revelations regarding NSA’s acquisition of Internet transactions mark the third instance in less than three years in which the government has disclosed a substantial misrepresentation regarding the scope of a major collection program,” Bates wrote.   read more

It just so happens that these four senators represent “states with mining and metal-processing interests,” Steve H. Hanke, a Johns Hopkins University professor, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed arguing against the plan. But Americans may not like the idea. Two years ago, when similar legislation was introduced, a poll from Lincoln Park Strategies found that 76% of respondents “strongly opposed” the idea of the dollar coin.   read more

The latest twist in the case came when the government filed a brief saying atheist leaders can be ministers, too, because atheism can function as a religion. That would mean leaders of an atheist organization could qualify for the exemption. Annie Laurie Gaylor, the head of FFRF, said no thanks, and has asked the judge overseeing the case for help to stop the government from granting her the exemption. “We are having to tell the government the obvious: We are not a church.”   read more

Bower was later informed of her positive drug result, which was used by a LCCYS caseworker to remove the baby from her mother—even though the child tested negative for opiates. Bower denied using any drugs, and claimed the Supreme Pasta dressing she ate before going into labor contained poppy seeds. Mother and child were kept apart for 75 days, and after being reunited, Bower sued LCCYS.   read more

The common link among the 10 counties is frustration with the Democratic-controlled legislature, which has been accused of ignoring the concerns of northern Coloradoans on issues like gun control, oil and gas drilling and renewable energy. Liberals have made fun of the secession talk, saying the new state could be called “Weldistan” or “Fracktopia.”   read more

As the storage capacity of cell phones rises, that position could become harder to defend,” wrote Timothy Lee of The Washington Post. “Our smart phones increasingly contain everything about our digital lives: our e-mails, text messages, photographs, browser histories and more. It would be troubling if the police had the power to get all that information with no warrant merely by arresting a suspect.”   read more

Fewer personnel are volunteering because drone pilots lack opportunities for promotion to higher ranks. Also, the military hasn’t done enough to cultivate respect within its ranks for these non-traditional pilots. The same reasons explain why the dropout rate for drone operators is three times higher than that for traditional pilots.   read more

The Interior letter states that Keystone XL could cause displacement of species, “increased predation rates and predator travel lanes,” more collisions between wildlife and automobiles and power lines, “increased wildfire risk … and increase in poaching,” as well as other problems. Shortly after the State Department released its draft report in March, the EPA criticized the assessment, saying it did not account for how the project might affect underground water supplies.   read more

The two lawmakers estimate that a $50-per-ounce tax could raise up to $20 billion annually for the government. This amount would exceed what the treasury receives through taxes on alcohol ($7.9 billion) and tobacco ($15 billion), they claim. Another House bill (the Small Business Tax Equity Act) would allow the Internal Revenue Service to provide breaks on federal income taxes for marijuana businesses.   read more

Rusbridger told the BBC News that “given that there were other copies and we could work out of America, which has better laws to protect journalists, I saw no reason not to destroy this material ourselves rather than hand it back to the government.” He also said that there is little point in fighting the government in court.   read more

From 1776 to 2011, Youngstown did not record a single earthquake. But from January 2011 to February 2012, 109 tremors were recorded, according to research (pdf) published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. The strongest quake, on December 31, 2011, had a magnitude of 3.9. What changed? In December 2010, a well was dug in neighboring Pennsylvania to pump wastewater produced by fracking.   read more

“The FISC is forced to rely upon the accuracy of the information that is provided to the Court,” U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said in a written statement to The Washington Post. “The FISC does not have the capacity to investigate issues of noncompliance, and in that respect the FISC is in the same position as any other court when it comes to enforcing [government] compliance with its orders.”   read more