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

After dismissing his legal defender, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army officer accused of killing 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, four years ago, said he did so in order to protect Taliban leaders from the American military. He claimed “defense of others” to explain the killings.   read more

Three conservative Supreme Court judges—Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.—joined liberal Stephen Breyer and swing-vote Anthony Kennedy in deciding it’s okay for police to use DNA tests to identify suspects in custody, rather than just to find those responsible for unsolved crimes.   read more

After the George W. Bush administration launched the 2003 invasion of Iraq, officials promised that with access to its oil the war would pay for itself. However, almost half of Iraq's oil is now bought by Chinese companies, which intend to purchase even more in the near future, including one of Iraq’s largest oil fields, which is owned by Exxon Mobil.   read more

The Department of Health and Human Services plans to fast-track new medications to combat antibiotic resistance and biological agents that terrorists might use. Supporters of speeding up new drugs want new antibiotics immediately tested on severely ill patients, rather than taking the customary and legally approved route of conducting studies.   read more

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) found in a review of data from 2010 that Caucasians and African-Americans have similar rates of using marijuana, but blacks are nearly four times as likely as whites to be arrested for its possession.   read more

Workers who smoke cost more to employers. Micah Berman, lead author of a study at the College of Public Health and Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, reported that the “annual excess cost to employ a smoker is $5,816” due to sick leave, lower productivity, and additional healthcare costs.   read more

The Wall Street Journal and other news organizations seeking doctor-specific information will still have to file Freedom of Information Act requests, which will then be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the Department of Health and Human Services. In 2012, the Obama administration, as part of the Affordable Care Act made some doctor-specific Medicare data available to local community groups, but not to news organizations.   read more

In 2010, there were more deaths due to gunfire, including suicides, homicides, and fatal unintentional shootings, than motor vehicle fatalities in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. In some locations, the total of gun-related deaths was at least twice that of the number of motor vehicle-related deaths. In Alaska, it was 144 vs. 71, and in DC it was 99 vs. 38.   read more

Zakaria Kandahari, identified as the chief interpreter for an American Army Special Forces A Team stationed in Wardak Province, is wanted in connection with the deaths of 17 Afghans. Afghan officials want to arrest Kandahari on murder, torture and abuse of prisoner charges, and they have accused the American military of shielding him from capture.   read more

The group plans to display a monument bench that will feature quotes from Madalyn Murray O’Hair, a renowned atheist activist, an excerpt from the Treaty of Tripoli signed by President John Adams, and quotes from founders Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.   read more

The plaintiffs from High Times Magazine, The Daily Doobie and The Hemp Connoisseur insist they “do not sell or promote obscenity,” and demand the court throw out HB 13-1317. They pointed out that alcohol is banned for Americans younger than 21, but that alcohol-related magazines are allowed to be sold openly.   read more

In court papers that surfaced last week, prosecutors accuse Manning of aiding three "enemies": al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and a "classified enemy," whose name the government wants to keep secret from the public. The "classified enemy" gambit, like the government's whole "aiding the enemy" case, arises because the government's case, as many legal scholars have argued, involves some highly questionable overreaching to turn a simple leak case into an "aiding the enemy" case.   read more

“War without reflection is mechanical slaughter,” Heyns said, claiming today’s casualties from drone warfare will pale in comparison if robots are let loose in future conflicts. For instance, will robots be able to recognize soldiers surrendering and not kill them, Heyns wondered. He also theorized that they may make it easier for nations to engage in war, and could be used by repressive governments to suppress domestic rebellion.   read more

With a price tag of $4.7 billion, the deal is the largest ever takeover of an American company by a Chinese one. Shuanghui will take the company private. However, there is another American component in the deal because one of the investors in Shuanghui is Goldman Sachs, which bought out the Chinese government’s share of the company in 2006. Goldman now owns 5% of Shuanghui. Morgan Stanley is also said to be involved in the current deal.   read more

The secretive intelligence court that normally acts as a rubber stamp for whatever spying the U.S. Government wants to do last week surprised many observers by ordering the Justice Department (DOJ) to respond to a lawsuit seeking details of unlawful Obama administration surveillance.   read more

The revolving door between big business and government is spinning again. Despite his promise during the 2008 campaign that lobbyists would take a back seat in his administration, President Barack Obama recently nominated a long-time telecommunications lobbyist—who has also donated and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his campaigns—to serve as the next chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the agency that plays the principle role in regulating the telecom industry.   read more