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 Marines, who brought pilots, communication teams and combat engineers, have four UH-1N Huey helicopters. Their assignment is to spot drug traffickers from the Guatemalan drug cartel Las Zetas in boats—including crude mini-submarines—and then radio the Guatemalans, whose job is to seize the drugs and arrest cartel members.   read more

These killings “cost producers approximately $11,076.49 per year between 1987 and 2003 … [and] accounted for <0.01% of the annual gross income from livestock operations in the region.” Such losses, moreover, are subject to compensation by the federal and state governments.   read more

Rahman died in November 2002 inside a freezing cell at a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan, while al-Jamadi died while in CIA custody in November 2003 at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. A military autopsy concluded that Al-Jamadi’s death was a homicide that followed an interrogation conducted by CIA officer Mark Swanner.   read more

For three months she served as a gate guard at a forward operating base. Soon she began to question the purpose of U.S. involvement in Iraq. “Why am I here? What am I giving my life for? How am I helping my comrades and Iraq's people?...Is what I am doing self-defense or aggression?”   read more

She stands accused of coming up with a novel method of carrying out this task…having people—namely her three children—take FINRA exams 64 times so that they could memorize the questions. The Leahys managed to retake the tests over and over again thanks to an 81% failure rate.   read more

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has suggested that 12 police officers arrested for alleged involvement in the shooting might have ties to criminal organizations. The CIA agents have been flown back to the United States, leading some Mexican politicians to questions whether they will cooperate with the official investigation into the incident.   read more

App developer Josh Begley received an email this week from Apple saying that “We found that your app contains content that many audiences would find objectionable.” Before that, the company rejected the app on grounds of it being “not useful.”   read more

The focus of the audit was the Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) program, which was established in 1996 to provide individuals ineligible for Social Security numbers, in particular resident aliens, with ID numbers for tax purposes. Nearly three million tax returns were filed in 2011 using ITINs, involving tax refunds totaling $6.8 billion, most of it as a result of applying the Additional Child Tax Credit.   read more

The 7/20 Recovery Committee charged with distributing the donations does not include any victims or their families. 7/20 Committee spokesman Rich Audsley said, “This committee will not be having the victims decide how the dollars are allocated. It will be done by the committee with input by victims.”   read more

An Arizona-based trucking company specializing in explosives hauling has been ordered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to reinstate a whistleblower fired for refusing to travel with a co-driver who smoked.   read more

Following the 2010 census, Texas received four additional congressional districts as a result of the state’s population growing by more than four million people. Latinos accounted for 65% of the increase, blacks 13.4% and Asian-Americans 10.1%. Latino make up 38% of Texas’ population, but only 25% of registered voters.   read more

The environmental group says the new goal of 54.5 mpg by 2025 will more likely be reduced to 47 mpg once certain credits, such as those for air-conditioning units, and “flexibilities” are factored in. Not including electric cars, the current commonly available car with the best fuel efficiency rating is the Toyota Prius at 42 mpg.   read more

CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf was quoted as saying it made “sense to get behind the winning horse...Mark and Kathryn’s movie is going to be the first and the biggest. It’s got the most money behind it, and two Oscar winners on board.”   read more

AIDS activists were outraged once they heard how much Gilead intends to charge for the new drug. Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, called the pricing “shockingly irresponsible….It’s just unsustainable at these levels,” he told The New York Times. Industry analysts project Gilead could earn $2.5 billion from sales of Stribild by 2015.   read more

In a particularly bizarre twist of words, Murray Energy Chief Financial Officer Rob Moore told Blomquist that company managers “communicated to our workforce that the attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend.”   read more

Instead of government scientists testing new flavorings or preservatives, manufacturers’ own labs or those they contract with perform the assessments. This system has resulted in “the vast majority of new ingredients added to U.S. food” over the last 15 years never receiving a safety determination from the government,” according to the Chicago Tribune.   read more