According to aides who were present when Trump discussed the issue, but who choose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, Trump said he was sick of Vance and wanted to fire him. “I wanted him to be my attack dog,” said Trump, “but he appears foolish on television. He dropped the college football trophy. He met with Pope Francis and the next day the pope died. Vance is toxic, and I don’t want him to come near me. He just doesn’t look as good on television as I thought he would.”   read more

Americans have increasingly shunned both the Republican and Democratic parties in favor of independent status when it comes party identification. This trend has progressed to the point where in 44 of the 50 states, independents are a larger group than either the number of registered Republicans or Democrats. Alaska is 54% independent (26% Republican and 14% Democrat), and Massachusetts stands at 53% independent (35% Democrat and 11% Republican).   read more

A military judge, Navy Captain J.K. Waits, issued a restraining order last year barring female guards from touching Abd al Hadi al Iraqi, who cited religious reasons for his request that only male jailers handle him. Hadi had refused to leave his cell because of the presence of women. After a wave of protests erupted from prosecutors and prison staff, Waits relented and lifted his restraining order.   read more

New rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Thursday will result in the Internet being treated like a utility under federal law and allow local governments to develop public high-speed online service. The rules were approved by a 3-2 vote of the FCC, with three Democrats voting for the rules and two Republicans against.   read more

The video chats provide less privacy for visitors with picture and sound being recorded and often reviewed by jail officials. In-person visits were usually in a separate room, but the video chats often take place in the dayroom of a jail. Sometimes family members watch while fights break out behind their loved one. Attorneys are also troubled by the lack of privacy.   read more

The leader is IBM, which has received $4.9 billion from DHS, most of it for automatic data processing systems and services. (And DHS isn’t even its biggest federal customer. That would be the Department of Defense, which pays IBM more than $6 billion). Right behind is Integrated Coast Guard Systems, which makes radio navigation equipment, at just about $11.5 million less than IBM. They are followed by Computer Systems Corporation at $4.1 billion and Lockheed Martin at $3.9 billion.   read more

Using the National Violent Death Reporting System, which collects data from 16 states, Hempstead and Phillips found that the suicide rate per 100,000 among the targeted age group went from 15.5 in 2005 to 18.2 in 2010. The unemployment rate in those states increased as well, from 5.1% to 9.6%. The rise was most dramatic in Rhode Island, where the unemployment rate more than doubled between 2005 and 2010, as did the suicide rate for those aged 40 to 64.   read more

The blaze, the plaintiffs say, was caused by the Colorado Army National Guard at Camp Guernsey using ammunition and explosives during dry conditions. The 22-square-mile fire consumed 1,000 acres of prime timberland and destroyed more than 1,000 acres of prime grazing land, according to the Rothschilds. The estimated monetary loss to their property was $6,773,703.   read more

Legend is scheduled to perform Monday in a festival put on by the repressive government of Bahrain. Human Rights Watch has documented many abuses by the Bahraini government, including imprisonment of opposition figures on “terrorism” charges and police use of excessive force. Other issues include lack of freedom of expression; failure to address domestic violence against women; and abuses of migrant laborers from other countries.   read more

A new report published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found a stronger association in some cases between heart disease deaths and long-term exposure to UFPs than with fine particles, which are subject to both federal and state emissions regulations. Some particulate constituents, including copper, iron, other metals and elemental carbon (soot), were strongly associated with death from heart attacks.   read more

An analysis by The Intercept showed that between 2011 and 2013, the U.S. military made 957 condolence payments totaling $2.7 million, $1.8 million of them for deaths with the maximum amount generally capped at $5,000. The largest single payment for a death—$15,000—came in 2011. Other payments are as low as $100.   read more

After serving six months in 2004 and 2005 in Iraq repairing Apache helicopters, Shepherd and his unit were relocated to Germany, where he was stationed for two years. In 2007, he received word that his unit would be redeployed to Iraq. By then, Shepherd had decided he could no longer support the war and objected to going back to Iraq on conscientious grounds. Shepherd left his post and appealed to the German government for asylum.   read more

The former inhabitants of Diego Garcia who were kicked off their island home by the British so the U.S. could develop a key military base may soon get to return home after nearly 50 years in exile. Diego Garcia was created as strategic U.S. military base during the Cold War. It also may have been involved in the CIA’s secret rendition program, serving as a refueling site for clandestine flights carrying detainees and possible “black site” where suspected terrorists were interrogated.   read more

Avijit Roy was traveling with his wife, Rafida Ahmed Bonya, through Dhaka in a rickshaw when two assailants removed them and began attacking them with machetes. Roy, 42, was pronounced dead at a hospital. Bonya survived the attack but lost a finger and suffered numerous lacerations. Muslim zealots had threatened Roy, a bioengineer and a naturalized American citizen, “for his active campaign against Islamist radicals.”   read more

The IG’s office received information that the Coast Guard was authorizing unnecessary healthcare travel. An audit found 94% of the records it reviewed for the Travel to Obtain Health Care program lacked documentation, such as doctors’ referrals and cost estimates, to justify trips. The Coast Guard in Alaska, for example, sent personnel or their relatives to such destinations as Vail, Colorado; Orlando, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; and Scottsdale, Arizona.   read more

In an interview with The New York Times, Lack spoke of the difficulty of his job and said: “We are facing a number of challenges from entities like Russia Today which is out there pushing a point of view, the Islamic State in the Middle East and groups like Boko Haram. But I firmly believe that this agency has a role to play in facing those challenges.” Russia Today, a website and television channel run by the Russian government, blasted the comparison of their organization to terror groups.   read more

Lorance started with tough rhetoric the day he took over. “He looks like the all-American sweetheart when you meet him,” said Staff Sgt. Daniel Williams. “But he was just so aggressive. One of the first things he said to us was, we are going to go in Gestapo-style with night raids, pull people out of houses, make them afraid of us.” Lorance ordered sharpshooters to fire rounds into a village, striking near civilians. In one case, he told a sharpshooter to torment a man by firing near his head.   read more