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 problem with the loan-a-drone program, according to critics, is that it is being operated on an ad-hoc basis with no established regulations for how and when to use them, or how to protect Americans’ privacy, or how to make sure taxpayers are reimbursed for the loaners. After all, CPB’s drones can cost between $15 million and $34 million each to purchase, not to mention their hourly operational costs.   read more

Blake DeVolld, a civilian Air Force intelligence officer, lost top-secret security clearance in 2006 after his ex-wife told federal agents that he had classified documents in his home. After half a dozen years, the Air Force exonerated him and restored his security clearance. He collected his $93,000 salary for four years, but was suspended without pay for another two.   read more

According to the plaintiff, the products include GMO corn and corn derivatives, making any “all natural” claim out to be “false, misleading and likely to deceive reasonable consumers.” The lawsuit notes that “Genetically modified corn products contain genes and/or DNA that would not normally be in them, and are thus not natural, thereby causing the Product to fail to be ‘All Natural.’”   read more

After compiling studies that covered 2.88 million people, researchers found that those considered overweight based on their body mass index (BMI) had less risk of dying than people of normal weight. Also, people on the lower end of obesity (BMI of 30 to 34.9) were not more likely to die than normal-weight people.   read more

As much as she wanted to do something for those suing the Obama administration, federal Judge Colleen McMahon concluded on Wednesday that she just couldn’t force the government to reveal the memo that describes its legal justification for President Barack Obama’s assassinations of U.S. citizens accused of terrorism. Included in McMahon’s opinion was a classified appendix that was kept secret and was not even made available to the lawyers of the plaintiffs in the case.   read more

• $43 million over two years for owners of motorsports entertainment complex properties (read: NASCAR racetracks) engaged in construction. • $150 million in deductions for Hollywood studios that film in low-income communities of just in the United States. • The bill allows the banks and multinationals to defer paying taxes on foreign income, thus encouraging the creation of jobs outside the United States.   read more

The New York Police Department (NYPD) had stored more than 10,000 barrels of evidence containing sensitive DNA material in two Brooklyn warehouses. The evidence included rape kits and other materials collected for the courts to use in upcoming trials. In the case of a sexual assault trial, a rape kit may no longer be admissible if water contaminated the contents. The flooding may also have compromised about 5,000 “narcotics items” stored in one of the buildings.   read more

From 2001 to 2010, the murder total dropped in the U.S., including a 16.7% decline in the largest cities. Unfortunately, homicides increased by almost the same percentage, 16.9%, in suburban communities during the same period. Public officials theorize that criminals have found a lower law enforcement presence in the suburbs than in the big cities, and have therefore re-targeted their efforts to the areas of least resistance.   read more

According to election officials, the reasons for the long lines—some of which stretched for blocks—included lengthy ballots, heavy voter turnout, and reduced early voting days. Theodore Allen, a professor from Ohio State University, estimated that as many as 49,000 Floridians were discouraged from voting because of the long waits.   read more

Perdue decided to issue a full “pardon of innocence’ after the state chapter of the NAACP and other advocates presented her with new information that revealed the prosecutor, Assistant New Hanover County District Attorney James “Jay” Stroud Jr., wrote glowingly of white jurors believed to be Ku Klux Klan members while labeling one black juror as an “Uncle Tom type.” For some members of the Wilmington Ten, the pardons came far too late. Four have died, and several others are in poor health.   read more

The law permits the NSA to pry into Americans’ international emails and phone calls without obtaining a court order. The spying program, which would have ended on December 31 without the extension, has been heavily criticized by civil libertarians. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a prepared statement that the law’s “main purpose” is to “give the government nearly unfettered access to Americans' international communications.”   read more

The problems encountered by the Kulluk were not unexpected…at least to people other than those who work for Shell or the U.S. government. In August, when the Obama administration gave Shell the go-ahead for exploratory drilling, environmentalists warned that Shell and federal regulators were not prepared to deal with the dangers that come with oil drilling in frozen waters.   read more

Included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (pdf) is a section mandating most businesses to offer employees insurance coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices and other birth control methods. More than 40 lawsuits have been filed by opponents of the requirement, including one from the construction firm Korte & Luitjohan Contractors, whose owners, Cyril and Jane Korte, objected to the rule based on their Catholic beliefs.   read more

Buried within the tome that is the federal healthcare reform law is a provision, only recently noticed and now much debated, that restricts doctors from gathering data about their patients’ gun habits. The clause, which falls under the heading “Protection of Second Amendment Gun Rights,” was added to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the insistence of the National Rifle Association (NRA).   read more

The rightward drift of the Republicans can be partially attributed to the remapping of House districts into increasingly partisan populations in which one party overwhelmingly dominates. From the Republican perspective this means that primary elections are more important than general elections, and incumbents are more worried about defending themselves against primary opponents from the Right than they are about the Democrats they face in November contests.   read more

No analyst blamed Romney’s defeat solely on his 47% remark. But the number did indeed come back to haunt him…. Once all the votes were counted after Election Day, the results showed that the Republican candidate lost to Obama by four points: 51% to (you guessed it) 47%.   read more