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

Miller has served most of his 25 years at the IRS, an agency in the Treasury Department, in its Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division (TE/GE). From April to September 2009, Miller served as commissioner of the Large Business and Mid-Size Business Division, leaving that post when he was named deputy commissioner for Services and Enforcement.   read more

The Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense and the Federal Bureau of Investigation asked the military judge, Colonel James Pohl, to censor any statements from the detainees going on trial that reveal how they were tortured or abused by the U.S. Pohl agreed with the agencies that classified information should not be disclosed during the proceedings, including any details about the use of interrogation techniques on the defendants.   read more

The only state law in the U.S. banning the possession of guns in public has been overturned by a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court. The Seventh Circuit panel voted 2-1 to throw out an Illinois statute that prohibits citizens from carrying firearms outside the home. In a dissent that was longer than the majority opinion, Judge Ann Claire Williams argued that it was the right of the state of Illinois to make its own laws regarding controlling guns to combat crime.   read more

In the Northeast, more than half of the region’s 103 ski resorts will offer less than 100 days of skiing by 2039, according to an upcoming study by Daniel Scott, director of the Interdisciplinary Center on Climate Change at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Some states, such as Connecticut and Massachusetts, may lose all of their ski resorts by then, while New Hampshire could lose more than half.   read more

In Maine, 42% of those shot by police since 2000—and 58% of people who died from their wounds—were mentally ill. The Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram noted that the Justice Department does not keep track of police shootings that involve the mentally ill. Nor does the Federal Bureau of Investigation quantify police shootings that turn out to be “unjustified.”   read more

Some detained immigrants who have no criminal records can spend weeks, if not months or years, in jails with no access to due process and sometimes little opportunity to communicate with relatives or others trying to help them. Meanwhile, 8,500 criminals—including 201 murderers—were released by ICE into U.S. cities during the past four years because their native countries refused to accept them back.   read more

. The editorial staff of The New York Times observed that “It boggles the mind that a bank could launder money as HSBC did without anyone in a position of authority making culpable decisions. Clearly, the government has bought into the notion that too big to fail is too big to jail. When prosecutors choose not to prosecute to the full extent of the law in a case as egregious as this, the law itself is diminished.”   read more

When asked to choose between higher taxes and cutting entitlement programs, 35% of respondents to the new United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll said they’re more worried about reductions to Social Security and Medicare. Only 27% said they were more concerned with their tax bill going up. Also, only 13% expressed worry over a budget deal resulting in the government spending too much money in the future.   read more

A new report from the Center for American Progress disputes this assumption. It says about 164,000 seniors who lost their Medicare eligibility may not have Obamacare to fall back on if they live in the 10 states whose governors have declared they will opt out of the Medicaid expansion called for by the president’s law.   read more

Information collected by the apps includes phone numbers, precise locations and unique serial codes of a mobile device, which are then transmitted to app developers, advertising networks or other companies, according to the FTC report. Regulators warned that the information could be used to locate or contact children or track their activities across different apps without their parents’ knowledge or consent.   read more

With 54 nations ranked, American fourth-graders ranked 11th in math and 7th in science, while eighth-graders were 9th in math and 10th in science. Also, only 7% of US students reached the advanced level in eighth-grade math, compared to 48% of eighth graders in Singapore and 47% of eighth graders in South Korea.   read more

Privacy advocates have expressed concerns over the deployment of the technology on buses, saying the moves raise questions about the limits of legally protected privacy in public spaces. This mass government eavesdropping on the public will occur without any kind of court order or warrant.   read more

The Republican-led legislature in 2011 approved “Choose Life” specialty plates for automobiles, but not plates with a pro-choice message. The American Civil Liberties Union sued to have the legislation thrown out, which U.S. District Court Judge James Fox agreed to do last week.   read more

Support for full legalization of marijuana continues to grow among Americans. In 1969 when Gallup first asked about legalizing pot, only 12% supported the idea. That percentage expanded to about a third of the population by 2005, and now it’s up to 48%, with 60% of those aged 18 to 29 favoring legalization.   read more

In seven states, atheists cannot run for public office, and in Arkansas, they can’t even testify as witnesses at trials, according to the report. Outside the United States, religious skeptics suffer persecution or discrimination—or even death. At least seven nations that operate under Islamic law have provisions for executing atheists. The seven are Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Mauritania, and the Maldives.   read more

If a single man and a single woman each earn $200,000, Wimer explained, neither would owe any additional Medicare payroll tax. But if they are married, they would owe $1,350, thanks to the 0.9% extra tax on earnings over $250,000. Among the wealthiest 20% of households, the tax increases will average about $6,000 next year. Altogether, the new taxes are expected to raise $318 billion over 10 years.   read more