A man impersonating a member of Congress walked into a secure backstage area without being properly screened and spoke with President Barack Obama at an awards dinner last fall. Only five days later, a woman walked backstage unchecked at a dinner where Obama was a featured guest. And, according to The Washington Post, two people traveled past a Secret Service checkpoint without being noticed and reached the White House grounds.   read more

The right-wing’s anti-Muslim rhetoric "plays dangerously into the hands of the Islamic State and other terrorist groups that thrive on the alienation of Muslim populations in the West,” said the report. The threat to resettling Syrian refugees in the U.S. "confuses the victims of terrorism with its perpetrators." Their rhetoric "also threaten[s] constitutional protections – as presidential candidates have already tied these narratives to limitations on the free exercise of speech and religion.”   read more

The fight resulted in two dozen concussions, dislocated shoulders, a broken leg, broken nose, fractured cheek, and other injuries One male first-year cadet said his upperclassman commander advised him: “If you don’t come back with a bloody nose, you didn’t try hard enough.” A female first-year cadet defended the event: “Right after, when we learned how many people had gotten hurt, everyone felt totally hard-core. I know it looks weird from the outside, but it really bonds us.”   read more

“This disenfranchisement makes no sense,” said Beshear. “It makes no sense because it dilutes the energy of democracy, which functions only if all classes and categories of people have a voice, not just a privileged, powerful few. It makes no sense because it defeats a primary goal of our corrections system, which is to rehabilitate those who have committed crimes.” Kentucky joins more than 20 other states that have eased restrictions on voting by former prisoners over the past 20 years.   read more

Court documents revealed 113 students reported being raped at FSU last year, but the school officially reported only 14 such cases. Melissa Ashton, former director of the FSU’s Victim Advocate Office, testified that in the nine years she worked there, 40 football players were accused of either sexual assault or “intimate partner” violence, but to her knowledge, only one person had been held responsible. “She said most of the women chose not to pursue the cases ‘based on fear,’” said the Times.   read more

Before his nomination, Califf helped design and oversee a clinical trial for Xarelto, which thins blood in heart patients. With Califf's help, the drug won FDA approval in spite of two FDA warning letters before the trial began and a later recall notice that said testing devices in the trial could deliver false test results. An FDA review of the trial showed it was biased in favor of approving Xarelto, Patients using Xarelto were said to be “at greater risk of harm from stroke and/or bleeding.”   read more

The EPA banned the use of methyl bromide in U.S. homes in 1984. It is still used on American farms and throughout the Caribbean, including illegally in U.S. territories. Its continued use gained attention after a family from Wilmington, Delaware, nearly died from exposure to the pesticide on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands nine months ago. Two of the family’s boys are still hospitalized in Delaware, suffering from neurological damage and paralysis. The father is also paralyzed.   read more

“We’re going to see a stream of edited animals coming through because it’s so easy,” said professor Whitelaw. “It’s going to change the societal question from, ‘If we could do it, would we want it?’ to, ‘Next year we will have it; will we allow it?’” A variety of gene-altered creatures are already being created in labs for purposes of battling disease to enriching the food industry. Human gene manipulation is the logical next step, a prospect that excites some and frightens others.   read more

“It is clear that we’ve reached a tipping point,” Collins wrote. “In accordance with NIH’s commitment in June 2013, I have reassessed the need to maintain chimpanzees for biomedical research and decided that effective immediately, NIH will no longer maintain a colony of 50 chimpanzees for future research.” Additionally, NIH intends to develop a plan for phasing out all agency support for the remaining chimps that are supported by, but not owned by, the NIH.   read more

Jeb Bush adviser John Noonan wrote: “Forced federal registration of US citizens, based on religious identity, is fascism. Period. Nothing else to call it.” Another right-wing voice, Iowa radio host Steve Deace, remarked: “If Obama proposed the same religion registry as Trump every conservative in the country would call it what it is—creeping fascism.” Trump’s attempts to control the media and inciting violence against critics also suggest fascist characteristics, according to some historians.   read more

The judge’s rulings in the case are seen as setting a precedent in support of requests for e-file data from the government and, consequently, may motivate the IRS and other federal agencies to overhaul its longtime method of releasing records. The IRS had balked at complying with the FOIA request, claiming that it would cost $6,200 to develop new technology and train its employees in its use--an "undue burden" under a "sequestration" budget. Judge William Orrick rejected that excuse.   read more

Valeant Pharmaceuticals is boosting the prices of older drugs, this time remedies for cancer patients with skin conditions. The soaring costs “have been off the charts," said researcher Dr. Steven Rosenberg. "We're not talking about new [or exotic] drugs. None of this makes any sense other than that they can get away with it.” Drug giant Pfizer is planning to boost profits another way, by buying Allergan and relocate to Ireland so it can avoid paying income taxes to the U.S. government.   read more

Over the past two years, frackers have been less forthcoming, with drillers increasingly citing use of proprietary compounds to limit disclosure. The trend was discovered by two Harvard researchers who examined more than 96,000 disclosure forms. It was found that drillers have been holding back more information. The study documented a 16.5% withholding rate on forms filed between 2013 and April 2015, compared to 11% in an Environmental Protection Agency analysis between 2011 and 2013.   read more

Walmart leadership was so concerned about the union activity that “it hired an intelligence-gathering service from Lockheed Martin, contacted the FBI...ranked stores by labor activity, and kept eyes on employees (and activists) prominent in the group” Susan Berfield reported for Bloomberg. The media investigation into Walmart revealed that inside its global security operation is a unit operated by a former FBI officer and an executive who used to run the Arkansas State Police.   read more

Republican Brian Kemp, the Georgia secretary of state, sent out a voter file to 12 recipients—media and political parties—that contained more than the usual names and addresses. Also in it were Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and dates of birth for 6,184,281 registered voters, according to a lawsuit filed by Elise Piper and Yvette Sanders. The two women, who filed a class-action lawsuit against Kemp, said they were among those whose information was revealed.   read more

The men are suing the city of Manteca for adopting ordinances making it illegal to sleep or set up encampments outside. It also banned urination and defecation in public. The four say they have been cited by police for illegal campsites and argue the laws violate their constitutional rights by making homelessness a crime. “If we are not doing a crime, leave us alone,” Acosta told ThinkProgress, adding, “I shouldn’t be arrested and dragged off to county” just for being homeless.   read more