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

The indictment says Donald Blankenship turned a blind eye to hundreds of safety violations “in order to produce more coal, avoid the costs of following safety laws, and make more money.” It charges he ordered miners “not to construct certain ventilation controls that would produce more reliable airflow because constructing them diverted time from coal production.” Federal investigators concluded that the explosion that killed the 29 men was preventable.   read more

For the past five years, the Corporation for National and Community Service has been putting out a report on reports produced by federal agencies. Seeing this effort and others like it as a waste of taxpayer money, House members unanimously adopted HR 4194, which calls for eliminating the report on reports as well as the Dog and Cat Fur Protection report and 46 other reports. The cost savings from the move is estimated to be about $1 million a year.   read more

Schneider grew up around politics. His father, John, was a North Dakota state legislator and speaker of the house who was subsequently appointed to be the state’s U.S. attorney by President Bill Clinton. Schneider left the North Dakota legislature in November 2009 to become state director of USDA Rural Development in North Dakota, a post he held for five years.   read more

O’Brien left Iowa in 2006 to become the assistant director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture. He left to work on the Obama for President campaign in 2008 as rural vote director for Obama for Ohio. After the election, O’Brien was brought into the Obama administration, first as chief of staff for Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, then as senior advisor to a fellow Iowan, Secretary Tom Vilsack. In 2011, O’Brien was named deputy under secretary for rural development.   read more

Consumer, environmental and worker safety regulators in Washington are supposed to ensure the concerns of small businesses are included in rulemaking. But increasingly federal agencies are instead giving too much weight to the voices of large corporate interests that have “hijacked” small business representation. The EPA, OSHA and CFPB have allowed trade associations and corporations they represent to “capture” small business review panels that are there to help the little guy.   read more

State Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley accused Brownback of not telling the voting public the truth about his tax policies as he campaigned for a second term. “He knew all along that his policies were going to bankrupt the state,” Hensley told reporters. “There are some very, very difficult choices ahead for the Legislature. They’re going to have to cut school funding. They’re going to have to raid the highway fund. They very likely will have to cut social services.”   read more

André Shepherd had come to the conclusion that the U.S. war in Iraq was wrong, and that his support for Apache attack helicopters contributed to war crimes because they dropped bombs "indiscriminately—and increasingly catching civilians in the crossfire.” So Shepherd left his post and appealed to the German government for asylum. That request moved closer to becoming a reality after a European Court adviser cited European law as covering asylum requests for someone like Shepherd.   read more

Element Electronics has marketed itself as an American-owned company that sells the only American-assembled television in the country. That pitch has won it relationships with Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club and other businesses. But Element has reportedly outright lied about its TVs being made in this country. For starters, the sets are made in China. They’re then shipped to Element’s facility in South Carolina, then shipped off to stores.   read more

“The hard truth remains that people wake up in the morning and turn on their televisions — and political groups know this,” said Kantar Media's Elizabeth Wilner. “Good Morning America” proved the most popular with campaigns, which bought time for nearly 30,000 Senate ads there during the 2014 election cycle. “Today” and “CBS This Morning” came in second and third, respectively. “Wheel of Fortune” fans were subjected to 20,000 election ads, and “Jeopardy!” viewers 18,000.   read more

At least three nations have deployed missiles that can destroy enemy positions without any guidance from human operators. “An autonomous weapons arms race is already taking place,”said physicist Steve Omohundro. Norway has the Joint Strike Missile, which can lock in on targets without human control. The Pentagon is testing Lockheed's Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, but officials won’t say if it can attack on its own. Many fear autonomous weapons will make warfare more likely or destructive.   read more

As President Barack Obama works to establish policies to limit climate-changing emissions through federal regulatory actions and an international accord with China, Republicans are determined to use their new congressional power to stymie those efforts. While the EPA moves to strengthen limits on smog-causing ozone and reduce coal ash waste by power plants, Republicans may throw a wrench in Obama’s environmental plans by trying to cut off EPA funding.   read more

The government actions involved agencies in the U.S., Britain and Switzerland handing out combined fines of $4.25 billion to major international banks caught rigging the $5.3 trillion-a-day world of foreign exchange. The biggest penalty by a single regulator came out of the Financial Conduct Authority of Britain, which hit five major banks with more than $1.7 billion in fines. In Washington, the CFTC announced $1.4 billion in penalties against Citigroup, HSBC, JPMorgan, RBS and UBS.   read more

During the first eight months of 2014, blacks and Hispanics made up 86% of the low-level marijuana possession busts. However, the two groups make up only 60% of the city’s population, while whites have higher rates of marijuana use. “To the extent the police department continues to disproportionately enforce the law in black and Latino communities, any administrative change on minor marijuana possession will constitute window-dressing in the name of reform,” said U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.   read more

If there’s one branch of the armed services that leans Democratic, it is the U.S. Army. About $534,000 was given to political candidates, party committees and outside spending groups by active duty military personnel, according to OpenSecrets.org. As for the Navy, “a plurality of its donations” went to Democrats and liberal groups. The vast majority of members of the Air Force (74%) and Marine Corps (81%) who wrote checks really leaned in the GOP’s direction.   read more

U.S. drone technology is now in the hands of Iran, which claims to have reverse-engineered an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In December 2011, the Iranian military captured a Lockheed UAV after it strayed into Iran’s airspace from Afghanistan. Iran claimed they’d hacked into the drone’s electronic system, allowing them to take control and divert it to their country. Engineers reportedly took the drone apart and figured out how it works, allowing them to build their own version.   read more

The FBI reported that the number of murders and non-negligent homicides last year fell 4.4% to 14,196, the lowest total since 1968. The murder rate has also been dropping and stands at 4.5 per 100,000 population. Firearms were used in 69% of the murders in 2013. Violent crimes, a category that includes murder, also dropped 4.4% to 1.16 million last year. Not since 1978, when there were 1.09 million violent crimes, was that figure so low.   read more