Dr. Christian Head testified about efforts to retaliate against him. “Isolate. Then defame. Moving me to a storage bin...they are sending a message. They are trying to suppress [whistleblowers’] willingness to try to make a better life for these veterans.” Head said the locks to his office were changed, that he was relocated to a “tiny, dirty...closet-sized office” and nearly kept away from one of his patients. Other VA whistleblowers have committed suicide due to the harassment they endured.   read more

Soltan was working as a journalist translator covering the protests and was shot in the arm during a 2013 demonstration. For the past year, he has been on a hunger strike to protest his arrest and detention. Thousands of Egyptians are in prison for opposing the military-backed government, which has been accused of vast human rights abuses. The verdict comes in the wake of Obama releasing hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid for Egypt despite the lack of democratic reforms.   read more

When corporations underpay their workers, the government must step in to keep low-income individuals from slipping even further into poverty. Meanwhile, these companies are raking in enormous profits as a result of keeping their labor costs down. “The low-wage business model practiced by many of the largest and most profitable employers in the country not only leaves many working families unable to afford the basics, but also imposes significant costs on the public," said Sarah Leberstein.   read more

State Department officials say there are no plans to rescue Americans in Yemen. An official told McClatchy. “Sending in military assets, even for an evacuation operation, could put U.S. citizen lives at greater risk.” Other countries have rescued their citizens though. India, for instance, was able to move about 5,600 people, including almost a thousand from 41 other nations, out of Yemen. China, Russia and Ethiopia also evacuated their citizens.   read more

The most recent Department of Defense report lists buildings in 38 foreign nations and territories. The U.S. has 179 bases in Germany and 109 installations in Japan. Even where the U.S. doesn’t send military personnel, the U.S. does send weapons. The United States is the world largest arms exporter. From 2010 to 2014, Americans sent weapons to at least 94 countries.   read more

One of the U.S. Navy’s biggest embarrassments continues to produce serious fallout for top military personnel. The scandal has unearthed stories of “yummy” prostitutes, Spanish suckling pigs, and spa treatments. Three admirals have been censured for accepting “lavish gifts from Leonard Francis, known as Fat Leonard for his corpulent profile and grandiose lifestyle,” wrote Katherine Peters. Navy Capt. Dusek admitted to passing along classified information in exchange for prostitutes and cash.   read more

First built in the 1960s, Cheyenne Mountain was set up as a critical communications center deep inside Colorado's Rocky Mountains, where it was believed Air Force personnel could survive a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. The Air Force had since largely pulled out of Cheyenne Mountain, believing there was no longer a nuclear threat. Military officials haven't explained why they are now upgrading the complex, for which defense contractor Raytheon won a $700 million contract.   read more

The last two officials to run the FDA’s dietary supplement programs previously worked for the NPA, a trade group that has tried very hard to convince Congress not to create tougher standards for supplement makers. Daniel Fabricant was a senior NPA executive before joining the FDA. He has returned to the NPA as CEO. “To have former officials in the supplement industry become the chief regulators of that industry at the FDA is like the fox guarding the hen house,” said Michael Jacobson.   read more

The funding cuts have been pushed by Congressional conservatives who don’t like the idea of the IRS. “We deliberately lowered the IRS’ funding to a level to make you think twice about what you are doing and why,” Rep. Ander Crenshaw told the agency. “You don’t have a single dime to spare on anything frivolous... The IRS should focus on its core mission of...processing returns [and] providing customer service.” Those functions Crenshaw described are exactly those hurt by budget cuts.   read more

Egypt has imprisoned journalists, prosecuted gays and lesbians, and carried out mass executions of protesters. Obama had imposed the arms freeze after Egypt’s military overthrew the country’s democratically elected government in 2013. Sisi helped lead the coup, and more than 40,000 people were arrested in its immediate aftermath. Obama’s concerns over the ongoing human rights situation were finally trumped by national security matters,   read more

LegiStorm, a non-partisan watchdog group, analyzed the number of Senate and House of Representatives legislative assistants and other staffers who are assigned to the issue of abortion. On the Democratic side, 173 women and 60 men deal with abortion. But among Republicans the gender breakdown is the opposite: 139 women and 153 men.   read more

The 4-second recording contains information related to negotiations between the U.S. government and South Vietnam connected to the war. The NSA claims the brief recording, if released, “would reveal information that would impair U.S. cryptologic systems or activities.” Historians say the snippet probably refers to former President Johnson's threat to expose an illegal effort by the Nixon presidential campaign to sabotage the Paris peace negotiations on ending the war in Vietnam.   read more

The agency’s environmental impact statement warned drilling could have serious negative effects on the region, with a 75% risk of a large oil spill in an area where it would be virtually impossible to clean up. And yet, Interior officials decided to allow the drilling to go ahead. “Our Arctic ocean is flat out the worst place on Earth to drill for oil,” said Niel Lawrence. “The world’s last pristine sea, it is both too fragile to survive a spill and too harsh and remote for effective cleanup.”   read more

The requirement was included in Senate Bill 1318, approved this week by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. “It has no data behind it, absolutely no science to show that this is an effective method," said Dr. Ilana Addis.“If ever there is an example of Legislative overreach, this would be it," said Dr. Eric Reuss. "There is absolutely no evidence-based data that the [medication abortion] process can be reversed. If passed, our state government will force physicians to impart hearsay to their patients.”   read more

Lawyer Matt Anderson said the law opens up “the path of least resistance among its species to have a court adjudicate it in a manner that could ultimately be used to discriminate…" It “explicitly applies to disputes between private citizens,” said ThinkProgress. “This means it could be used as a cudgel by corporations to justify discrimination against individuals that might otherwise be protected.” The law already took root elsewhere; Arkansas on Tuesday passed a bill nearly identical to it.   read more

The smartphone owners were sent daily messages informing them of the number of times their personal information—current location, incoming and outgoing phone calls, their contacts lists—had been shared with app companies. One message read: “Your location has been shared 5,398 times with Facebook, Groupon...and seven other apps in the last 14 days.” People were taken off guard. One person reacted: “4,182 (times) – are you kidding me? It felt like I’m being followed by my own phone. It was scary."   read more