“After expanding by a record 1.7 million barrels a day in 2014, the latest price rout could stop U.S. growth in its tracks,” the agency reported. The reason for the decline is the fall in price caused by a huge surplus of oil.   read more

The hearing, labeled a “show trial” by Democrats, featured two “abortion survivors” who lived after their mothers attempted to terminate their pregnancies. Republicans did not invite anyone from the Center for Medical Progress, the antiabortion group that made and edited the undercover videos that sparked the hearings. Furthermore, GOP lawmakers—after making critical remarks about Planned Parenthood—admitted they had not seen the controversial videos in their full, unedited form.   read more

A five-year federal pilot program to determine levels of contamination around eight other nuclear facilities in the United States was cancelled this week because, apparently, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is already doing such a fine job of oversight. . Nuclear sites to be studied included active and decommissioned plants in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan and New Jersey. A nuclear fuel fabrication plant in Tennessee was also on the list.   read more

U.S. attorneys have been instructed to not settle unless they identify those responsible for wrongdoing. “Corporations can only commit crimes through flesh-and-blood people,” said deputy AG Sally Yates. “It’s only fair that the people who are responsible for committing those crimes be held accountable. The public needs to have confidence that there is one system of justice and it applies equally regardless of whether that crime occurs on a street corner or in a boardroom.”   read more

The Guttmacher Institute said 491 counties where Planned Parenthood clinics are located, 103 of them only have Planned Parenthood to serve low-income patients. The organization makes up 10% of the nation’s publicly funded family planning clinics, but serves 36% of the patients who go to them. “In many communities, there are not other health care providers that would be equipped to fill the void created by the prohibition of funding" for a qualified, trusted provider,” said Clare Coleman.   read more

It's said detention causes permanent harm to the physical and mental health of young children. Compounding the suffering is a policy that breaks up the families once they are rounded up. The detention itself, and the separating of parents from their children and each other, has been acknowledged as a tool employed by the U.S. government to deter others from entering the country illegally in the future. It is a practice that judges in immigration legal cases have demanded be stopped.   read more

Johnson has said the focus should be on those who pose a “demonstrable risk to national security” or who have been “convicted of specifically enumerated crimes.” Yet the TRAC report said that of the 7,993 people detained in April, two-thirds of them had not been convicted of a crime. The manpower and expense of pursuing undocumented immigrants as a means of crime prevention may actually be misplaced. Studies have shown that, in fact, immigrants are associated with lower, not higher, crime rates.   read more

The Justice Deptartment sought text messages sent between individuals suspected of illegal gun and drug activity. They were sent using Apple’s iMessage system. Apple said it couldn’t comply with the request as the iMessage system is encrypted. “The conflicts with Apple and Microsoft reflect heightened corporate resistance, in the post-Edward J. Snowden era, by American technology companies intent on demonstrating that they are trying to protect customer information,” wrote the Times.   read more

The AEC found NUMEC lost 185 pounds of uranium due to inefficiencies in the refinement process. The FBI looked into the missing uranium but, like the AEC, closed its investigation after meeting with NUMEC director Zalman Shapiro but without consulting the CIA, “even though the agencies knew the CIA was interested in him,” Ryan wrote. He also reported that two CIA employees who worked during the height of the investigations have said diversion of uranium occurred.   read more

One case involved a 1996 Toyota Camry driven by Kuoa Fong Lee, whose 2007 accident killed three people. Lee was sentenced to eight years in prison. She had served two years when her conviction of vehicular homicide was tossed out after Lee’s lawyers argued the car suddenly accelerated and Lee couldn’t stop it. “The cases are just the latest example of the double standard that prevails between street and white collar crime,” said author Rena Steinzor.   read more

The American Medical Association (AMA) said in a study released this week that plans by Anthem to acquire Cigna and Aetna to buy Humana will harm patients across the country. The AMA argues too many insurance markets are already dominated by a few companies, and allowing these mergers will only further concentrate insurance options.   read more

Researchers from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and from European institutions found that perfluorinated alkylates (PFAS) are sometimes fed to newborns through mother’s milk. PFAS are a class of industrial chemicals and cancerous toxins used to repel water, grease and stains in sleeping bags, pizza boxes, cookware, waterproof clothing and other common household products.   read more

The American College of Physicians, which represents doctors of internal medicine and related fields, has come out against the mass deportation of the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States proposed by Donald Trump and other members of the GOP, saying such a drastic move could adversely affect millions of individuals and endanger public health.   read more

Tribal leaders and others have voiced objections to Pope Francis’ announcement in January to make Serra a saint. Protests have been staged all across California and more are expected throughout the year. Serra’s drive to “civilize” native peoples while founding California's missions resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the eradication of their culture,   read more

The U.S. Department of Justice does not recommend shooting into moving cars because experts say it is widely viewed as ineffective for stopping oncoming vehicles, and doing so poses risks to innocent parties. An investigation by The Guardian found at least 30 incidents in 2015 of police firing their weapons into moving cars or trucks, killing at least one person each time.   read more

Research by Harvard’s Maya Sen shows that black judges’ decisions are overturned 10% more often than white judges’ decisions, even when accounting for differences in education, political views, experience and competence. "The difference appears not to be driven by black judges voting differently on certain cases."   read more