Roof was arrested in March in Columbia, South Carolina, on a narcotics charge. That normally would have prevented Roof from buying the gun the following month. However, Columbia is split between two counties and the county initially contacted by the FBI investigator through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System had no record of Roof’s arrest. The law says that retailers may release a gun if there is no response on the investigation within three days.   read more

The bill, McCain said, “would rebuild the wall between commercial and investment banking that was in place for over 60 years, restore confidence in the system and reduce risk for the American taxpayer.” Added Warren: “Despite the progress we’ve made since 2008, the biggest banks continue to threaten our economy. The biggest banks are collectively much larger than they were before the crisis, and they continue to engage in dangerous practices that could once again crash our economy.”   read more

Some Republicans objected to the anti-Confederate flag measures, prompting Rep. Ken Calvert's amendment that would largely undo them. “After the murder of nine black parishioners, I never thought that the U.S. House of Representatives would join those who would want to see this flag flown by passing an amendment to ensure” its continued flying, McCollum said. “For House Republicans it appears the cost of getting the votes...is to literally wrap themselves in this banner of racism."   read more

The use of renewable energy in the U.S. has reached levels not seen in more than 80 years. Last year, 9.8% of the nation’s energy consumption was supplied by renewable sources, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Transportation now uses 13% of all renewable domestically. Energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass have been expanding in use since the beginning of this century by an average of 5% per year. Hydroelectricity is still the largest source of renewable energy.   read more

Senate Republicans are on pace to confirm the fewest federal judges since Nixon was president in 1969. Since the GOP and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took over the Senate, not a single circuit court nominee has been approved. Republicans are hoping they’ll have one of their own making nominations after the 2016 elections. That means, od course, that the nominees won’t come down the pike until a few years from now. "Republicans are hoping [for] a lot of vacancies...to fill,” said Paul Gordon.   read more

Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito have created potential conflicts of interest by participating in decisions that potentially affected their stock portfolio. The study focused on 19 cases in which the three justices owned stock in companies that filed “friend of the court” briefs. The report says that 68% of the time they sided with the companies in which they owned stock. Not once did any of them recuse himself from a case due to such conflicts.   read more

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) keeps a count of police killings, but their list is woefully incomplete, as they rely on voluntary reporting by police agencies. The FBI’s count of police killings has hovered around 400 for the past several years. The Guardian also keeps a list and theirs does include the killing of Gray and others who die from means other than gunshots. That list had 550 names on it for the year as of last week.   read more

State legislatures have passed 282 laws restricting abortions since 2010. Fifty-one new restrictions have gone into effect this year alone. Five of them either imposed or increased time women must wait between their first contact with a clinic and their procedure. Arkansas and Tennessee now require a 48-hour wait. North Carolina and Oklahoma are forcing women to wait at least 72 hours, joining Missouri, South Dakota and Utah in requiring women to wait at least three full days for an abortion.   read more

The Justice Dept. would say no more than that it is looking into potential “unlawful coordination” among some airlines, but AP believes its focus is on whether the airlines illegally communicated about their pattern of adding new flights and routes, as well as the limiting of seats, which could be used to maintain high airfares. The Justice Dept. sent letters to American, Delta, Southwest and United Airlines--which are said to control more than 80% of the seats in the domestic travel market.   read more

In most cases, officers responded to calls from relatives or neighbors who said a mentally fragile person was behaving erratically. Many of those who were armed didn’t have firearms, but toy guns or implements that are less lethal than a gun. Also, more than 50% were killed by officers lacking in training for dealing with the mentally ill. “And in many cases, officers responded with tactics that quickly made a volatile situation even more dangerous,” said the Post.   read more

The Chamber has become “the hammer for the tobacco industry,” setting up lobbying operations in other countries to fight anti-smoking laws. Its zeal to help American tobacco companies has gone so far as to convince Ukraine to file a legal challenge against Australia over that country’s right to enact anti-smoking laws on its own soil. The Chamber, led by Thomas Donohue, has also worked to ensure that international agreements won’t impede the marketing of tobacco products in other countries.   read more

The toll on Americans from on-the-job chemical exposures is staggering. It’s been difficult for new worker safety rules to get established when manufacturing companies launch opposition campaigns to undermine OSHA’s efforts and those of labor unions and other advocates. Industry trade groups have filed lawsuits over the years to overturn new OSHA regulations. Congress has also contributed to curtailing the work of OSHA, which was dubbed the “Gestapo” of the government by Rep. John Boehner.   read more

They put the cost of the post-9/11 fighting at $4.4 trillion. In addition to the costs of bullets and bandages, they included the interest on the money borrowed to fight the war (remember—Bush sought no tax increases to fund the fighting); the money it took out of the economy and cost Americans in increased interest; the future cost of treating and healing wounded veterans (expected to peak in 30 or 40 years at more than $1 trillion); and increased homeland security spending.   read more

As the economy, which cratered at the end of the George W. Bush administration, has improved since 2009, the average CEO of the 350 largest corporations has gotten a 54% raise and is making $16.3 million a year. His employees, on the other hand, haven’t done as well, according to a study from the Economic Policy Institute. The average pay in those companies in 2009 was $53,200. Five years later, it’s still $53,200.   read more

Opponents of new voting laws pushed by Republicans say the Texas case could help challenge voter ID laws. The laws’ effect is to curb voting by minorities and those most likely to vote Democratic. Attorney Culliton-Gonzalez said the ruling is “very helpful” with lawsuits against those laws. “It’s...hard to prove intent,” she said. “We have a lot of implicit bias and symbols of racism...but we don’t always find state legislators saying, ‘We’re going to suppress the African American vote...’"   read more

The Charleston shooting was “only the latest in a string of lethal attacks by people espousing racial hatred [and] hostility to government,” said the Times. “The assaults have taken the lives of police officers, members of racial or religious minorities and random civilians.” There has been a misperception among Americans that jihadists have posed a greater danger. But scholars and now law enforcement agencies are acknowledging that right-wing extremists are in fact the greater threat.   read more