U.S. security officials intercepted a record 2,653 firearms - 83 percent of them loaded - from carry-on bags at airport security checkpoints in 2015, a 20 percent increase from the previous year, TSA said on Thursday. The firearms were intercepted at 236 airports, 12 more than in 2014, TSA said. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport seized the most guns in 2015 with 153, followed by international airports in Atlanta with 144, Houston with 100, Denver with 90 and Phoenix with 73, TSA reported.   read more

Coal has been the primary source of fuel for U.S. power plants for the last century, but its use has been declining since peaking in 2007, which is expected to continue as the federal government imposes rules to limit carbon emissions. EIA said gas produced a record high 37 million megawatt hours per day of electricity on average during the first ten months of 2015. Coal, meanwhile, produced about 39 MWh per day. One megawatt is enough to power about 1,000 U.S. homes.   read more

The EPA said Tuesday that while it "worked within the framework of the law to repeatedly and urgently communicate the steps the state needed to take to properly treat its water, those necessary (EPA) actions were not taken as quickly as they should have been." The agency said its oversight was hampered "by failures and resistance at the state and local levels to work with us in a forthright, transparent and proactive manner."   read more

"I want to see Donald Trump come to this country ... I want him to get a sense of the fury and the frustration with his xenophobic remarks," said lawmaker Gavin Robinson. "To have someone come to our shores who demonizes all of the Muslim community would be fundamentally wrong and would undermine the safety and security of our citizens and that is not a risk I am prepared to take," said Labour Party's Jack Dromey. "I don't think Donald Trump should be allowed within a 1,000 miles of our shore."   read more

"This issue must be resolved immediately or the consequences could be enormous for the thousands of businesses and millions of users impacted," warned the two largest American and European trade groups. Under EU law, companies cannot transfer EU citizens' personal data to countries deemed to have insufficient privacy safeguards, of which the U.S. is one. Revelations two years ago of mass U.S. surveillance programs set the stage for the European Court of Justice ruling.   read more

De Sousa's lawyer said there were no grounds for extradition and he would appeal to Portugal's top court. De Sousa was arrested in October at the request of Italian prosecutors, who want her to serve a six-year sentence. She was one of 26 people convicted in absentia on charges of snatching Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr from a street in Milan in 2003 and taking him to be questioned in Egypt. The case focused attention on the treatment of suspects moved around the world for CIA interrogation.   read more

The last decade, the networks' evening newscasts never showered a presidential campaign with the kind of attention they gave Trump a year before the White House vote even takes place. Thanks to over 24 hours of Trump interviews on Fox News the past seven months, Trump received nearly $30 million in free media. Last year, he received nearly three times as much network coverage as Hillary Clinton. while Bernie Sanders received a total of 20 minutes of newscast coverage compared to Trump's 327.   read more

The lawsuit was filed against Nestle and others by former child slavery victims originally from Mali in West Africa. Their lawsuit claims that, aware of the child slavery problem, the companies offered financial and technical assistance to local farmers in a bid to guarantee the cheapest source of cocoa. "On behalf of current and former child slaves in the cocoa sector in West Africa, the plaintiffs hope their case will help to end this inhumane practice," IRA's Collingsworth said.   read more

An untold number of "ghost" Afghan troops are paid salaries but only exist on paper. "When we say we have 100 soldiers on the battlefield, in reality it is just 30 or 40," said Afghan lawmaker Nasiri. "It is an indication of massive corruption — the reason Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt nations in the world." Nasiri said the government "doesn't seem to want to know about it," and that he received death threats after revealing the names of those who are allegedly in on the scam.   read more

An investigation by the NTSB revealed that pilots weren't closely monitoring the plane's airspeed, which began to decrease to dangerously slow levels. Thus the captain was startled when a safety system activated, violently rattling the control yoke. Instead of pointing the plane downward to pick up speed, the captain pulled back on the yoke to increase altitude. That slowed the plane even more, eventually leading to an aerodynamic stall. The plane fell from the sky and landed on a house.   read more

Joining other major U.S. Internet firms who oppose the bill, Apple said the British proposals could weaken online security by providing a backdoor to users' data for "bad guys" as well as "good guys." If approved, the bill will let police and spies access Internet connection records —websites, apps and messaging services someone has visited. Civil liberties groups have also expressed alarm at the bill. A previous version of the legislation was thrown out by lawmakers in 2013 as overly intrusive.   read more

A new U.S. government report estimates 900 million short tons of coal were produced last year, a drop from about 1 billion short tons in 2014. That's the lowest volume since 1986. Power plants are increasingly relying on cheaper and cleaner-burning natural gas to provide electricity and comply with regulations aimed at reducing pollution that contributes to climate change. Last year's drop in demand hit hardest in the central Appalachian basin, where production plunged 40 percent.   read more

Confronting ISIS on the Internet has raised difficult questions for U.S. policymakers about how to balance counterterrorism against privacy. While tech industry leaders say they want to be good citizens, they don't want to undercut free speech or be viewed as government agents. Especially thorny is the fed's desire for a way to circumvent encryption technology that individuals use to protect their privacy but that terrorists can exploit to keep their actions hidden from law enforcement.   read more

While the trend toward specialty medicines is good news for industry and patients, it's likely to fuel the debate over rising prescription drug prices. That issue has become a subject of congressional scrutiny and even an issue on the presidential campaign trail. Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both outlined proposals designed to curb prices. The FDA is not allowed to consider prices when approving medicines, though some experts argue it should.   read more

Even after President Barack Obama announced two years ago he would limit spying on friendly heads of state, the NSA kept watch on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and top Israeli officials. In the process the agency caught some conversations with U.S. lawmakers, according to the report. Some of the exchanges involved Israeli strategy around the Iran nuclear deal and, in some cases, the NSA overheard Israeli officials trying to convince undecided lawmakers to oppose the deal.   read more

The amount of money the Kochs have to spend in the 2016 cycle is more than twice what the Republican National Committee is planning to put out. The Koch’s network operates from 107 offices nationwide with a workforce more than triple that of the RNC. The Kochs are even starting to rival the RNC’s infrastructure, with a data analytics service that some Republican candidates prefer to the GOP’s. “I don’t know of any precedent for this,” said campaign finance scholar Robert E. Mutch.   read more