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 mandate in the Obamacare law says insurance companies must provide details in no more than four pages that utilize plain English, and include easy-to understand formats. Wendell Potter lauded the change in law because he felt the industry had “profited for years by using legalese and gobbledygook in describing their policies, and also by purposely withholding information we really need to make informed coverage decisions.”   read more

“Smart guns” can come equipped with biometrics and grip pattern detection that allow only the registered owner of a gun to fire it. The iGun, made by Mossberg Group, requires the owner to wear a special chip-implanted ring that activates the gun. TriggerSmart in Ireland makes a childproof smart-gun that can’t be fired near schools that have the requisite technology installed on campus.   read more

Taxpayers for Common Sense estimates that oil companies will receive $78 billion in tax breaks and subsidies between 2012 and 2017. In March 2012 a majority of senators did vote in favor of the Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act, which would have eliminated $2.4 billion in deductions gained by the five biggest oil companies, but the bill needed 60 votes to pass. By the end of the fiscal cliff negotiations, Republicans and Democrats left all of the subsidies in place.   read more

When individual citizens are investigated and prosecuted for white collar crimes or other wrongdoing, they often agree to pay a financial settlement to the federal government as a way to avoid prison time or criminal charges. When corporations are in similar situations, they often go on to claim the settlement payments as tax-deductible business expenses, something individuals cannot do. In effect, such corporations get taxpayers to foot the bill for their misconduct.   read more

Nearly 85 percent of the weapons, or about 1,260, were loaded—which is illegal. Under TSA rules, passengers with proper permits may fly with unloaded guns stored in hard-sided checked baggage, but not in carry-on items or on a passenger. If one accounts for airport size by measuring gun confiscations per passenger enplaned, the list leader is Provo, Utah, Municipal Airport, with its rate of 134.6 guns per million.   read more

Frieman, a lawyer and nonprofit consultant, was ticketed in October for driving in the carpool lane during restricted hours, and failed to sway the police officer by waving his papers of incorporation and claiming the company’s company as sufficient qualification under the law. Frieman’s attorney, Ford Greene, told a reporter for the Bay Area News Group that “when a corporation is present in one’s car, it is sufficient to qualify as a two-person occupancy for commuter lane purposes.”   read more

The ACA includes a provision requiring insurance companies to cover breast pumps and visits to lactation consultants at no cost to the patient. Previously, 31 states required Medicaid to cover breast pumps, and some private plans included coverage for a fee. Now, Obamacare requires insurers to cover “comprehensive lactation support and counseling…and costs for renting breastfeeding equipment” in conjunction with each birth.   read more

The company has admitted to violating the Clean Water Act, and will pay a total of $1.4 billion in civil and criminal fines and penalties, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. As part of the criminal settlement, Transocean will pay the National Academy of Sciences and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation $150 million each. These monies will pay for oil spill prevention and response in the Gulf and natural resource restoration projects.   read more

In the wake of the March 2012 massacre of 16 Afghan villagers by an American soldier, the U.S. gave the victims’ families $50,000 for each of their murdered relatives, and $11,000 for those wounded in the attack. Even the Afghan government got into the act by making compensation payments of $2,000 for each death and $1,000 for each person wounded.   read more

The California Court of Appeal for the Second District ruled that sex-by-impersonation is only rape when the impersonator is pretending to be a spouse. The three-judge panel voted unanimously to order a retrial of Julio Morales with instructions that the lower court, essentially, ignore his trickery. However, the court also urged the California legislature to change the outdated 1872 law to expand the definition of rape to include impersonating a boyfriend or significant other.   read more

Her sexual orientation has made her a historic figure already, but there’s much more to Kyrsten Sinema than just being the first openly bisexual member of Congress. The financial struggles she endured as a child motivated her to overachieve. After growing up in a Mormon family, she experienced homelessness in the 1980s following her mother’s divorce, which forced her family to live in an abandoned gas station for two years.   read more

With all ballots finally counted and certified, the tally from the November election revealed that Obama won 51.1% and Mitt Romney 47.2%. Four years ago, Obama received 52.9% of the vote. Although George W. Bush was elected twice, he earned only 47.9% of the vote in 2000 and 50.7% in 2004. In fact, in 2000 he actually lost the popular vote to Al Gore by 543,895 votes. Before Bush, Bill Clinton won 43.0% in 1992 and 49.2% in 1996.   read more

On behalf of the panel, Judge Jon Newman wrote that “This ancient gesture of insult is not the basis for a reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation or impending criminal activity. Surely no passenger planning some wrongful conduct toward another occupant of an automobile would call attention to himself by giving the finger to a police officer.”   read more

Scientists say spending years at a time in space could make astronauts more vulnerable to developing Alzheimer’s disease. This would happen because of the long-term exposure to cosmic radiation, which spacecraft can’t entirely block out. To do so, said the study’s senior co-author Dr. M. Kerry O'Banion, “one would have to essentially wrap a spacecraft in a six-foot block of lead or concrete.”   read more

The two men were part of an archeology expedition searching for remains of Noah’s Ark in Turkey when, in August 1991, members of the PKK captured and held them for three weeks. The plaintiffs sued the Damascus government claiming it had allowed the PKK to operate from Syrian territory, and provided financial support and training to the terrorist group. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that Syria was “vicariously liable” for the kidnapping.   read more

Ten years ago, the profits of these five companies were $2.4 billion (adjusted for inflation) collectively. By 2011, their profits had soared to $13.4 billion. During the period in which the profits of weapons makers were going up 450%, the U.S. defense budget rose 55%. During the same time frame, the median annual income for American families actually went down almost 6%.   read more