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

In 2010, half of CCA’s revenue of $1.67 billion came from the states and 43% came from the federal government as a result of contract with the U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).   read more

The rise in the number of Americans lacking health insurance may be influencing many to put off seeking medical help. The percentage of those without health benefits in 2010 was 21.8%, up from 17% nine years earlier. Only 24% of those without health insurance went to a doctor in 2010 compared to 72% of those who were insured.   read more

The centers circulated information about Ron Paul supporters, the ACLU, activists on both sides of the abortion debate, war protesters, advocates of gun rights and Muslim community group and mosque activities—including book recommendations and parenting classes—that were clearly innocent. Although the federal government is barred from storing information about First Amendment activities unrelated to criminal activity, DHS kept these reports on its computers, despite knowing they were worthless.   read more

According to Richey, these “incorrect” votes changed the results of three of the nine presidential elections he studied. If all voters had chosen the candidate who most reflected their own beliefs, Gerald Ford would have defeated Jimmy Carter in 1976, Al Gore would have defeated George W. Bush in 2000 and John Kerry would have beaten Bush in 2004.   read more

In 2008, only 50% of eligible Latino voters went to the polls, compared with 66% of whites and 65% of blacks. Between 2008 and 2010, the number of Latinos registered to vote actually declined by 600,000.   read more

The plaintiffs claim the military and the Central Intelligence Agency tested as many as 400 types of drugs and chemicals, including mescaline, LSD, amphetamines, barbiturates, mustard gas and nerve agents, on soldiers. The veterans are not seeking monetary damages, but want the Department of Veterans of Affairs to provide medical coverage for those suffering from the effects of the testing.   read more

One parolee had died more than 19 years ago. Another, who died in October 2011, was described as “bedridden at home” in five separate reports after he had died. Amazing as it may seem, the auditors concluded that “there is risk that the PPO [probation and parole officer] was not actually verifying the offenders’ placement and simply entering the same information month after month.”   read more

The three presidential debates are run not by the government, but by a nonprofit organization, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). The CPD was created in 1987 by the Democratic and Republican parties as a bipartisan—rather than a nonpartisan—effort. The current co-chairmen of the CPD are Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr. and Michael D. McCurry. Fahrenkopf is a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, while McCurry was President Bill Clinton’s press secretary.   read more

The contest for the presidency of the United States is being fought by two candidates, the Democratic incumbent, Barack Obama, and the Republican challenger, Mitt Romney. However, there are actually 23 other candidates who have qualified for the presidential ballot in at least one state.   read more

The government claims investors lost $22.5 billion as a result of low-quality mortgages sold by entities now controlled by JPMorgan. The suit does not ask for a specific amount, but rather calls on JPMorgan to turn over all the profits it made as a result of fraud and to pay restitution to investors. Homeowners who were sucked into the deals with get nothing.   read more

Sepúlveda also was accused of lying while under oath during the investigation. One issue was the use of $50,000 in taxpayer money to produce a General George S. Patton parody video. Sepúlveda said he was not aware of the production, but several VA workers testified that he had in fact viewed the videos. The report acknowledged that the training conferences themselves were legitimate, and only criticized the excessive and questionable spending.   read more

The researchers found the age of the animal does matter. Not only did participants who looked at pictures of cute baby animals outperform those who didn’t, they also outperformed people who looked at pictures of adult animals. Viewing pictures of pleasant-looking foods did not improve performance.   read more

Americans aren’t as interested, as some politicians would like to believe, in downsizing the federal government across the board. When asked in 2011 about whether they would increase, decrease, or maintain spending levels, respondents strongly favored upping the budgets for education and veterans, and, to a lesser extent, for social security, Medicare, health care and combating crime. Where Americans most want to cut funding is foreign aid.   read more

The web sites of government agencies—those with URLs ending in “.gov”—had the highest level of accuracy, 80.9%. National organization—with URLs ending in “.org”—also did well, at 72.5%. The most inaccurate websites belonged to retail businesses, with an accuracy rate of only 8.5%. Blogs also did poorly at 25.7%.   read more

The biggest settlements were: • GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) paying $3 billion to resolve criminal charges for promoting its best-selling antidepressants for unapproved uses and failing to report safety data about Avandia, a much-prescribed diabetes drug, and other products. • Johnson & Johnson paying a $2 billion fine for off-label promotion of the antipsychotic drug, Risperdal. • Abbott Laboratories paying $1.6 billion for its illegal marketing of the antipsychotic drug Depakote.   read more

The hospitals get away with what they are doing because it is mostly legal and because the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal body responsible for administering Medicare and Medicaid, actually provides little oversight of billing practices. If the winners in this scheme are the hospitals, the losers are taxpayers, who foot the bill, as well as patients, who see their co-payments increased.   read more