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 IRS says 984,400 people did not file a federal tax return four years ago, leaving the agency with $917.4 million in unpaid refunds. Many of the cases involve people who made too little money to be required to file a tax return, but who had federal taxes withheld from their paychecks and are owed a refund. Lower-income individuals and families with children also may be owed funds as a result of the Earned Income Tax Credit.   read more

When WikiLeaks published State Department cables, Pyatt became embroiled in controversy because of a May 4, 2007, cable he sent recommending that K.V. Rajan, a secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs and a member of the Prime Minister's National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) visit Washington DC in order to help “feed” U.S. government views on Iran into the Indian system.   read more

Fifty-seven years ago, the minimum wage was officially $1/hour. But its “real value” based on 2013 dollars would have been $8.39. When the same thing conversion is made for the current wage of $7.25, its real value is only $7.80. “Because there have been some extended periods between these adjustments while inflation generally has increased, the real value (purchasing power) of the minimum wage has decreased substantially over time,” the report states.   read more

American combat units officially left Iraq at the end of 2011, but the U.S. war effort in the country is still going strong, only now it’s the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) taking the lead. When American military units were still fighting in Iraq, U.S. Special Forces worked closely with elite Iraqi antiterrorism units to thwart al-Qaeda affiliates, such al-Qaeda in Iraq. With these American commandos largely gone, CIA agents have stepped in to help Iraq’s Counterterrorism Service.   read more

“On the rare occasions when embarrassing study results are released, data are manipulated to make them unintelligible,” Coughlin said in his testimony to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs’ Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Coughlin’s research focused on the relationship between exposure to burn pits and cases of asthma and bronchitis among Afghanistan and Iraq veterans, including those who fought in the 1991 Gulf War.   read more

The study, coauthored by Cathy J. Cohen of the University of Chicago and Jon C. Rogowski of Washington University in St. Louis, found that 72.9% of black youth (aged 18-29) were asked for ID, compared with 60.8% of young Latinos and 50.8% of young whites. In the 2012 presidential elections, 93% of black voters voted for Barack Obama, as id 71% of Latino voters and 60% of voters aged 18-29.   read more

According to a new report from the Congressional Research Service, immigration to the U.S. has nearly matched the peak period of 1905-1915. As of 2010, foreign-born residents comprised 12.9% of the U.S. population, which is close to the key year of 1910 when it was 14.8%. Of the 1.1 million people who became legal permanent residents in FY2011, almost 65% did so on the basis of family ties. Another 16% were refugees or those seeking asylum.   read more

About 20,000 gun owners in the state are barred from possessing firearms, including the mentally ill, convicted felons, and those subject to a domestic violence restraining order. Last year, the state seized about 2,000 weapons, along with 117,000 rounds of ammunition and 11,000 high-capacity magazines. Thirty-three California Department of Justice agents are assigned to the task of tracking down and confiscating the disallowed guns.   read more

According to Clapper, al-Qaeda’s main operation, located in Pakistan, is in such bad shape that it is “probably unable to carry out complex, large-scale attacks in the West.” Furthermore, the terrorist organization’s regional spinoffs in the Middle East and Africa may pose trouble locally, but aren’t in a position to carry out attacks on American soil. And yet, the FBI keeps exposing and arresting anti-American elements in the U.S. that are allegedly a threat.   read more

For decades, the U.S. government used the existing 18.4 cents-per-gallon gas tax to finance the fund, which pays for roads and rail programs throughout the U.S. But over the last 20 years, inflation and fuel-efficient automobiles have caused more money to be spent than what the highway trust takes in through the gas tax. Consequently, the trust—which will have about $12 billion by the end of the current fiscal year—is projected to have zero dollars left by 2014.   read more

Over the last 15 years, 5,513 bodies have been recovered along the border. In 2012 alone, the total was 463. The border area near Tucson, Arizona, has proven the most deadly since 2001, with 177 bodies found in the last fiscal year. But fatalities have jumped significantly in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, where the death toll went from 66 in 2011 to 150 last year.   read more

The news of what went on within the section was nonetheless bad for Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, who is reportedly President Barack Obama’s choice for labor secretary. In his current capacity, Perez has overseen the Voting Section, and details from the IG’s report could be used against him during confirmation hearings, if he is nominated.   read more

That email, written by EPA lawyer Geoffrey Wilcox, suggested various ways to derail FOIA requests. "One of the first steps is to alert the requestor that they need to narrow their request because it is overbroad,” wrote Wilcox, “and secondarily that it will probably cost more than the amount of $ they agreed to pay."   read more

Information that the government would use to vet passengers would include data that individuals have volunteered through trusted traveler programs. But some of the information would come from the Department of Homeland Security, which has agreed to edit out some of the information it has, such as meal preferences.   read more

Another Democrat, Representative Gary Ackerman of New York, who retired this year after 20 years in the House, led the list of biggest givers by handing out $147,633.34 as going-away presents. A Democrat may have headed the list, but the next nine next biggest givers were all Republicans.   read more

In May 2010, the lawyer, Anthony Trujillo, discovered the Wells Fargo typo in its original letter to Delassus, which listed the parcel number of a neighbor. The bank acknowledged the mistake in September 2010, but had already tacked on a reinstatement fee and other costs. Delassus was hospitalized in May 2011, suffering from the rare liver disease Budd-Chiari Syndrome, and was notified on the day he got out that the bank had sold his home of 16 years.   read more