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

Instead of using dealerships, Tesla markets and sells its automobiles through the Internet or by phone. This new business model of selling vehicles has upset owners of car dealerships who see Tesla as a threat to the traditional way of making deals. That is why the North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association sponsored a law that would make it illegal for any carmaker to bypass dealerships and sell directly to customers.   read more

The state adopted the Cuba Amendment, which banned businesses from receiving state and local contracts if they had dealings in Cuba or Syria, or maintained connections with companies that did so. The law also required companies to certify that they did not have business operations in any of the two countries when bidding on a government job or renewing a contract with a government agency.   read more

Documents sealed from the public include affidavits for search, arrest and charging warrants, as well as incident and investigation reports produced by law enforcement. Representative John Rubin, a Republican and a former federal administrative law judge, told the Kansas City Star that the records should be open “unless law enforcement can provide a justifiable reason to keep records closed or sealed to protect an ongoing investigation for prosecution.”   read more

Holly Van Voast has been arrested at least 10 times for showing off her chest. She recently filed a federal lawsuit against the city and the department to challenge such apprehensions. Her litigation reminded authorities that New York’s Supreme Court ruled decades ago that baring one’s chest in public— noncommercial activity—is as legal for a woman as it is for a man.   read more

The reason that the IRS has instead pursued the small outfits is because many don’t have legal counsel and therefore make for an easier target, Chris Ashby, a lawyer to conservative groups, told the Times. “The big groups are generally well-advised, lawyered up,” he said. “Their tax forms are artfully drawn.”   read more

In 2009, 30.5% of female characters aged 21-39 appeared at least partially nude. This percentage rose to 41.5% in 2010 and dropped back down to 39.6% in 2012. By contrast, the percentage of female characters aged 13-20 who appeared at least partially nude was 28.2% in 2009 and 33.0% in 2010, but jumped to 55.8% in 2012.   read more

To some observers, there may be more to the story than meets the eye because so much of it strains credulity—such as the unlikely use of a cheap-looking disguise, a recruitment letter written in such a potentially compromising way, and the fact that Russian authorities and media—already on the scene of the arrest—moved with lightning speed to plaster photos, video and information across the media landscape.   read more

Noor pleaded guilty before a military commission to conspiracy and providing material support to terrorism. Under the terms of his plea, he had to serve an additional 34 months on top of the nine years he’s already been imprisoned as a wartime detainee. Noor traveled to Afghanistan in 1994, where he received paramilitary training at an al-Qaeda camp. Noor claimed he was not a member of al-Qaeda, and was never linked to any specific terrorist attack.   read more

At least 43 contractors have been told by the MOF that they owe a combined $921 million in business taxes and associated penalties, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). SIGAR pointed out that the government of Hamid Karzai signed deals with the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Agency for International Aid and other bodies to excuse non-Afghan businesses from paying local taxes as long as they are helping with the war.   read more

In a news conference on Tuesday, Holder defended the spying, claiming that it was done in response to one of “the top two or three most serious leaks that I’ve ever seen.” He also claimed that he was not involved in the case and shifted the blame onto his deputy, James M. Cole. For his part, Cole defended his own actions by saying that the records “have been closely held and reviewed solely for the purposes of this ongoing criminal investigation.”   read more

CMS officials said they are not responsible for monitoring prescription practices, claiming that duty must be handled by private health insurance plans. However, the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services has repeatedly criticized CMS for not policing Part D.   read more

Researchers in the United Kingdom examined more than 48,000 species and concluded that 55% of common plant species and 35% of common animal species could lose half of their living space by 2080 if carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions continue at their current pace. The study’s investigators, based at Britain’s University of East Anglia, believe the species most at risk are amphibians, plants and reptiles.   read more

The Army’s move to implement the change prompted KBR to sue in court, where its lawyers argued that the remaining duties will cost $500 million and take 13 years to complete.   read more

A senior official told the newspaper that DHS is concerned about a repeat of what happened in Saudi Arabia last summer, when an Iranian-based cyber assault affected 30,000 computers at Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s largest oil producers. That attack was similar to the American-Israeli operation that unleashed the Stuxnet worm on computers used in Iran’s nuclear enrichment plants, which was intended to slow Tehran’s goal of developing nuclear weapons.   read more

President Ronald Reagan stood by Rios Montt, calling him “a man of great personal integrity and commitment,” even as human rights groups published accounts of atrocities and abuses under the dictator. Such accounts were bolstered by the disclosure of a 1983 secret CIA cable that implicated Montt’s government in “hit squad executions.”   read more

The commissioners couldn’t even review their own regulations developed following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission (pdf), which lifted spending restrictions on corporations and unions. While the commissioners debated among themselves, spending by independent groups tripled to $1 billion in 2012, up from $300 million in 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.   read more