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

Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration have expressed safety concerns regarding the da Vinci surgical system. Its maker, Intuitive Surgical, is currently being sued in dozens of cases because the robotic arm was responsible for sepsis, surgical burns, excessive bleeding, severe bowel injuries, and punctured blood vessels, organs or arteries.   read more

As a result of a New York Times story on the Stuxnet computer worm by David Sanger, hundreds of U.S. government officials have been questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine who communicated with him. The probe has dampened contact between Washington insiders and news media.   read more

FBI agents in Nebraska raided a large child pornography service, which shared thousands of images showing children being raped, displayed and abused. Realizing the illicit operation had more than 5,000 customers, the bureau continued operating it for two weeks to determine their identities.   read more

Eyelid lifts (blepharoplasties) billed to Medicare more than tripled to 136,000 annually from 2001 to 2011 making some suspect that seniors or physicians are bilking the government for an elective surgery rather than just the medically necessary procedure to preserve vision.   read more

To qualify for the tax exemption, participation in elections cannot be a group’s primary activity, with circumstances and facts regarding its work carrying at least as much weight as the amount of money that is spent. This can include the group’s website, the material it publishes, and whether its members are employed by political parties.   read more

One example of political intelligence firms’ work involved the arrangement of meetings between Elizabeth Fowler, a one-time top health-policy adviser to President Barack Obama, and executives from at least six investment firms during the last two years. Another instance involved a conference call between an official from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and managers of hedge funds, pension plans and mutual funds.   read more

Navi Pillay, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, singled out the ongoing detentions of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, as well as international kidnappings (aka renditions) and the use of drones, as troubling threats to laws and principles intended to protect individuals from abuse.   read more

Of the 54% who responded to a CNN/ORC International poll (pdf) saying they oppose the Affordable Care Act (pdf), 16% explained that their beef stems from the law not going far enough, the highest percentage since polling began. Another 35% of critics feel the law is too liberal. Other polls have shown widespread confusion about what the law actually includes, even among those who would benefit from it.   read more

Kiger used data obtained from IRS programs that allow previous U.S. tax evaders to voluntarily disclose details of their crime in exchange for receiving reduced penalties and no jail time. To date, more than 39,000 tax evaders have fessed up through those programs, resulting in a recoupment of $5.5 billion by the IRS. Of those cases, there are at least 129 that involved FCIB and its Caribbean predecessors.   read more

Citigroup (2012 revenues: $70.17 billion), for example, got one of its favorite bills to exempt many trades from new regulation through the House Financial Services Committee this month over Treasury Department objections, with 71 of the 80 lines in the bill written by lobbyists for major banks. Two critical paragraphs written by Citigroup were copied word for word, with the sole exception of two words that Congress changed from singular to plural.   read more

The per capita national debt rose by 75.2% during Bush’s presidency, a rate surpassed only by the presidency of Ronald Reagan, when the per capita debt skyrocketed by 168.2%. By comparison, the per capita debt grew by only 22.5% during Bill Clinton’s presidency and by 48.4% during Barack Obama’s first term.   read more

Rawls writes that “charter schools may be discriminating,” citing a 2012 report from the Government Accountability Office that found charter schools enrolled fewer students with disabilities, compared to those at public schools. There is also evidence that charter schools may not be achieving racial equality or helping low-income students.   read more

Duc Tan, a refugee and school teacher, was labeled a communist and an undercover Viet Cong agent by five Vietnamese-Americans in an August 7, 2003, public notice and local community news stories because they said that a Santa Claus apron found near a booth run by Tan’s organization at a community fair included gold stars resembling those used on the Vietnamese communist flag.   read more

The Association of German Breweries says fracking’s potential impact on groundwater supplies could jeopardize the country’s 497-year-old legal tradition of producing pure beer. German beer is allowed to be made only from malt, hops, yeast and water. Chancellor Angela Merkel is backing legislation in her coalition that would outlaw fracking in some areas of the country.   read more

Actually, the decision is easy to explain…from a political point of view. Republican Party leaders have taken the position that if any good comes out of Obamacare, the Democrats will get the credit, so it is better to sabotage it whenever possible. In addition, poor people rarely vote for Republicans anyway, so helping them is not an electoral priority.   read more

Treasury's projections for the second half of FY 2013 show additional receipts of $1.108 trillion vs. additional spending of $1.594 trillion, for total FY revenues of $2.712 trillion, total spending of $3.684 trillion, and a total deficit of $972.9 billion. Although Denninger does the math differently to come up with a deficit of $1.069 trillion, neither number demonstrates a substantial drop from the 2012 deficit of $1.089 trillion.   read more