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

The companies violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the FTC Act by using various tactics prohibited by the Act, such as calling debtors multiple times per day, calling after being asked to stop, calling at early and late hours, calling workplaces despite knowing that the employers prohibited such calls, disclosing a debtor’s name and the existence of the debt to third parties, and failing to cease collection efforts without verifying the debt after consumers challenged it.   read more

There was an average of 21 earthquakes a year of magnitude 3.0 or higher in the central United States between 1967 and 2000. Between 2010 and 2012, that number grew to 200 a year, according to a study published in Science. The study said there was a direct connection between a 9.0 earthquake in Japan in 2011 and a swarm of smaller quakes in a West Texas oil field that used fracking. A 4.1 quake near fracking wells in Prague, Oklahoma, was linked to an 8.8 quake in Chile in 2010.   read more

Baltimore state’s attorney’s office released 14 inmates it says do not pose a threat to public safety—13 murderers and one man convicted of attempted murder. The men all served more than 30 years in prison and are mostly elderly and in poor health. In fact, one of the men who was released, 72-year-old Yusuf Rasheed (aka Joseoh Westry), died of a heart attack the day after he left prison, having spent more than 37 years behind bars for killing his estranged wife and her lover.   read more

The homicide rate for people aged 10 to 24 was 7.5 per 100,000 in 2010, compared to 15.9 in 1993. In terms of actual numbers, about 4,800 young people under age 25 were murdered in 2010. Teenagers and young adults are more likely to be killed than older adults, the CDC says, with homicide still being a leading cause of death for the young, behind automobile accidents.   read more

An Alaska National Guard crew flying a training mission with a Black Hawk helicopter out of Anchorage spotted the wreckage in a receding glacier known as Colony Glacier. Officials then notified the Hawaii-based Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), which collected some of the remains. Members of JPAC returned this summer to gather more remains, including some human.   read more

From August 2007 to July 2010, he served as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Bogotá, Colombia. Starting in August 2010, Nichols served in the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), first as INL’s deputy assistant secretary and then, beginning May 25, 2011, as principal deputy assistant secretary.   read more

Located at al-Watah, about 125 miles west-southwest of the capital of Riyadh, some of the base’s truck-based DF-3 missiles appear to be pointed towards the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, and others in the direction of Iran’s capital, Tehran. The DF-3s were first developed in the 1970s and sold to the Saudi royal family in 1987. They are not remotely-guided, which means they must be positioned in the direction of their intended target.   read more

Local politicians see many opportunities with Cuba. The local airport could expand direct flights to Havana, while the city’s port wants cruise ships to base their Cuban voyages out of Tampa. The port could also serve as major commercial shipping center for expanded trade with Cuba. If the plan works, Tampa’s gain could be Miami’s loss.   read more

Others have said that the women, estimated to be upwards of 200,000, worked in Japanese brothels because it was steady employment, their pimps back home compelled them, their families thought they would be safer during the war or their families sold them to the enemy. Those are not reasons heard from the Korean, Filipino and Chinese women who are still alive to tell the story.   read more

According to Transparency International (TI), a nongovernmental organization, nurses in at least one local hospital made women pay $5 every time they screamed while giving birth. The penalty was allegedly intended to discourage women from raising false alarms. Women who didn’t pay the fee or simply couldn’t afford it were forced against their will to remain at the hospital until they paid their debt (which sometimes included accruing interest).   read more

McCulley received his first ambassadorship when President George W. Bush nominated him to be ambassador to Mali in May 2005; confirmed by the Senate in June, McCulley served three years in Bamako. After serving as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 2008 to 2010, McCulley served as ambassador to Nigeria starting in August 2010.   read more

Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MMA), the company involved in the derailment and explosions that killed an estimated 50 people in Lac-Mégantic, Québec, has been involved in eight derailments and four collisions in just the last three years in Canada, and another 10 derailments in the U.S. since 2003. The national average of accidents per million miles of travel by railroads is 2.3 accidents in Canada. But for MMA, the rate is 34.7 accidents.   read more

Adopted in May, the new regulations mandate labeling for steaks, ribs and other cuts of meat to detail where animals were born, raised and slaughtered. Previously, labels only required the notation of countries of origin for meat. Now, labels must specify such things as “Born in Canada, raised and slaughtered in the United States.”   read more

“It is critical in our efforts to [spend] 100% of our available resources this fiscal year,” the email from Deputy Chief Financial Executive Sanna Sims and procurement director Kathleen Miller stated. “It is also imperative that your organization meets its projected spending goal for June. . .” In 2010 Sims received a Presidential Rank Award for her ability to “consistently demonstrate strength, integrity, industry and a relentless commitment to excellence in public service.”   read more

The report states, “we recognize the challenges that MPD officers confront on a daily basis. The delivery of police services is a difficult, often dangerous, job in which the use of force, including the use of deadly force, is sometimes necessary.” Nonetheless, the Justice Department concluded that “MPD engages in a pattern or practice of excessive use of force with respect to firearm discharges.”   read more

The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community filed a federal class action case against Oak Harbor and three construction firms, Strider Construction Co., Perteet Inc. and KBA Inc., claiming the defendants refused to stop the roadwork after uncovering a burial ground on March 8, 2011. The Swinomish lived on the site until 1855, when they were moved to a reservation.   read more