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 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has retracted a suggestion that employees consider “Meatless Mondays” after the cattlemen industry reacted angrily to the idea.   In a recent internal newsletter, the USDA suggested ways for workers to r...   read more

Politicians from New York State want to rename the post office in Monroe and dedicate it to a fallen Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer.   The plan is to honor Gregg David Wenzel, who joined the CIA after the September 11 terrorist atta...   read more

Voters in Los Angeles County will decide in November whether adult film actors should be required to wear condoms.   The initiative, approved for the ballot by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, was spearheaded by the AIDS Healthcare F...   read more

The 2012 drought has become a national phenomenon, impacting at a minimum some portion of every U.S. state and Puerto Rico.   As of July 24, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported every state in the country was experiencing “at least a small area sho...   read more

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has pulled its proposed plan to require screening of chemical-plant workers for terrorist ties, a move that followed complaints from industry opponents of the plan.   Under the plan, chemical plants woul...   read more

A study from the University of Texas (UT) was heralded as an independent assessment that no link existed between hydraulic fracturing and groundwater pollution. But it turned out the report’s author was anything but independent.   The report (“F...   read more

As part of an ongoing lawsuit against the U.S. government, a federal judge has ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to release more documents relating to Cold War-era experimentation on American soldiers.   Judge Jacqueline Scott Corl...   read more

The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on the healthcare law could be used to challenge federal environmental efforts, according to one legal scholar.   Jonathan Adler of Case Western University recently wrote that the court’s striking down of...   read more

The proportion of Americans living in poverty is threatening to reach its highest level since 1965, according to numerous economists and academics. Poverty is spreading at a fast pace among the underemployed, the unemployed who have quit looking f...   read more

They cost consumers about $3 billion a year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) believes they are illegal, a bipartisan coalition of Senators has introduced legislation to abolish them, and President Barack Obama opposes them, but because federa...   read more

In a stunning display of chutzpah, oil giant BP, whose focus on profits and “complacency on major hazards” led to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill that spewed 205 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, is sending eight Louisiana...   read more

Just a few months after closing a manufacturing plant in London, Ontario, in order to transfer its work to a site in Indiana where workers would work for lower wages, heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar, Inc., is demanding that workers at its...   read more

Unless Congress acts to fix a massive financial crisis it created, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will default on a $5.5 billion pension payment to the U.S. Treasury due on August 1, as well as another $5.6 billion payment due on September 30. The...   read more

In a “major victory” for environmental activists, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court last week struck down crucial parts of the state’s controversial Act 13, thus restoring zoning authority over natural gas drilling to local governments, which had ...   read more

Things are looking up at the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a federal investigative and prosecutorial agency, following years of poor leadership under the Bush administration.   Responsible for investigating federal whistleblower disclosures a...   read more

Once again, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been criticized for illegal hiring practices involving relatives of current employees.   The current nepotism problem was uncovered by the department’s inspector general (IG) who reported seven exa...   read more