Rumors are spreading that the U.S. Supreme Court will vote 5-4 to rule that a U.S. president cannot be prosecuted for anything he does while he is president. Some Democrats are suggesting that Joe Biden bring a gun to his first debate with Donald Trump. If he shoots Trump, he would be immune, but if Trump shoots Biden he would be prosecuted because he is not a sitting president.   read more

Discriminatory design and decision-making affects all aspects of our lives. Industrial design plays a role by steering human activities. For example, benches designed with prominent arm rests or shallow seats discourage homeless people from sleeping on them. This phenomenon is known as “hostile architecture." As one critic points out, it says a lot about a culture when its solution to homelessness is to put spikes on public surfaces.   read more

The Baltimore report found that officers end up in unnecessarily violent confrontations with mentally disabled people who in many instances haven't even committed crimes. In one of the instances cited, an officer sprayed mace to force a troubled person — said by his father to be unarmed and off his medications — out of an apartment. The report was the first time the Justice Dept. has explicitly found that a police department's policies violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.   read more

Testing with radiation monitors was done at places where the truck likely stopped. Workers washed the material that spilled onto U.S. 191 off the pavement and removed 5 yards to 6 yards of potentially contaminated soil. The company said it isn't aware of any danger to the environment or people. The sludge is a normal byproduct of in-situ uranium mining. The solution is processed into yellowcake, which can be processed further into nuclear fuel.   read more

More people are using marijuana, using it more often and far fewer think it's risky, the survey found. That runs counter to scientific research about pot, said Dr. Compton. "If anything, science has shown an increasing risk that we weren't as aware of years ago," he said. Other research has increasingly linked marijuana use to mental impairment, and early, heavy use by people with certain genes to increased risk of developing psychosis, he noted.   read more

Satchell says whenever the app is open, even running in the background, it turns on microphones in fans' smartphones and records them while scanning for audio signals to pinpoint their location for marketing purposes. "Her phone was present in locations and personal and private situations not generally accessible to the public where the expectation was that her conversations were to remain private," the complaint states.   read more

Researchers found that after the law, there was an increase in the percentage of patients who required additional medical treatment to complete their abortions. Medical interventions rose to 14.3 percent compared to 4.9 percent before law. Such treatment included repeat dosages of the drugs, blood transfusions and surgery. The rate of women reporting at least one side effect also increased to 15.6 percent from 8.4 percent.   read more

The figures should be seen as under-estimates of the total spent. DoD routinely fails to publish records of significant amounts of foreign military assistance and contracts. For instance, the DoD published contracts for small arms and munitions purchases for Iraq and Afghanistan that if fulfilled totaled just $277,795,299. Such shortfalls highlight the lack of accountability and transparency that exists at the very heart of the US government’s weapon procurement and distribution systems.   read more

When a federal court overturned much of N. Carolina’s sweeping 2013 election law last month, saying it had been deliberately designed to discourage African-Americans from voting, the ground rules for this year’s elections in a critical swing state were thrown out too. Critics are accusing some of the boards of staging an end run around the court ruling. Like the law that was struck down, they say, many election plans have been intentionally written to suppress the black vote.   read more

Planning on picking up a flowering plant at your local garden center to attract bees? If you're thinking it hasn't been treated with harmful pesticides, think again. A new report shows that 23% of such plants sold at Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Hardware, True Value and Walmart have been treated with bee-toxic pesticides. It is one of the contributors to population declines in bees and other pollinators. Bees and other pollinators are essential for everyone.   read more

In a class action that sounds like a Tom Clancy novel, a patient claims that implanted heart devices can be attacked by hackers. The security flaws not only put patients' information at risk, but the heart implants are vulnerable to attack "in ways previously not possible." For instance,someone could "modify the implant without necessarily being close to the victim," Ross says. "Such attacks can put at risk the safety of the patient with the implantable device, with fatal consequences..."   read more

The lawsuit against Pima County seeks a temporary restraining order and injunction to preserve image files generated during the early vote count in the primary and subsequent elections. Pima plans to delete the images after counting them, a problematic process, because "if there are any questions or concerns or auditing that would need to come up later, there's that kind of missing piece in the chain of custody of the ballots in the counting process," said attorney Nye.   read more

Not all college prep companies are playing by the rules. In their investigative series for Reuters, a team of reporters found that foreign companies are increasingly helping students game the U.S. college application process. Some companies have leaked questions from college entrance exams to their students before they take the test. Others have gone so far as to ghostwrite entire college applications and complete coursework for students when they arrive on campus.   read more

One horrifying example detailed the heart surgery of a 7-month-old child. The operation took extra hours after a suction tube used for blood was found clogged with that of a previous patient. Staffers found hair and dried blood on instruments, and were often forced to use malfunctioning equipment, like a cauterizing tool that burned a child's lip during use. Another harrowing incident had staffers scrambling to obtain tools to regulate a patient's heartbeat during his open heart surgery.   read more

Georgia voters have had to prove where they lived, been purged from rolls and rejected from registering to vote. Will any of that will have a chilling effect on voter participation this presidential election? Voting rights groups have made Georgia one of the most closely watched states in the nation, given fears that the state's elections agency has become too partisan, tried to hinder registrations or suppress turnout. On top of that: Georgia could be in play in the presidential race.   read more

"States have strong interests in ensuring that charities do not serve as fronts for fraud or crime," the judge said. Requiring charities to disclose their source of funds directly promotes New York's interest in fighting fraud and does not substantially burden a charity's 1st Amendment rights, the opinion states. Stein said Citizens United presented "no factual background or support for their conclusory assertions" that their donors would face harassment if their contributions were disclosed.   read more

According to investigations in several states, Insys’ business model relied on funneling substantial payments to the doctors who most frequently prescribed its drugs, even if they had troubling disciplinary records or even criminal histories. The lawsuit alleges the speaking events “functioned more as social gatherings,” and physicians in attendance hardly mentioned the drug at all, instead ordering as much food and drink as they liked.   read more