Two bills would allow the operators of most chemical storage tanks to avoid tougher new standards that were created following the 2014 spill into the Elk River by a facility operated by Freedom Industries. In the Senate, lawmakers are reviewing a plan to eliminate drinking water protections for the Kanwaha River, into which the Elk River flows. The same measure would also get rid of the DEP’s policy of enforcing the state’s drinking water standards on all rivers and streams across the state,   read more

Tyheem Henry received 13,680 days—37.5 years—in disciplinary detention and lost 27,360 days (74 years) worth of telephone, visitation, and canteen privileges, and 69 days of “good time” for making 38 Facebook posts. The punishments are so long that the state has run out of room in its solitary confinement areas to hold all the offenders.   read more

Tyler Harber was charged with using his role as the campaign manager for Chris Perkins, a Virginia Republican running for Congress, to steer help from the super PAC National Republican Victory Fund. Harber first solicited a large political contribution from New York real estate developer Cary Fields, but instead of having Fields give the money to Perkins, Harber told Fields to give it to the super PAC.   read more

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) looked at the doctored stats put out by the Air Force as well as other numbers on the A-10’s performance. The numbers the Air Force released indicated the plane, nicknamed the Warthog, had killed more civilians and U.S. troops than any other aircraft in service. But POGO said the ratio of missions flown to number of civilians and soldiers killed showed the Warthog actually had one of the lowest rates of killing people.   read more

Al Shibh told the judge: “The problem is I cannot trust him because he was working at the black site with the CIA." Walid bin Attash was reportedly “visibly shaken” by the sight of Al-Nazer in the courtroom, there to supposedly help the defense team. Defense attorney Cheryl Bormann wondered if his presence was deliberate on the part of the U.S. government, saying it was either “the biggest coincidence ever” or “part of the pattern of the infiltration of defense teams.”   read more

The U.S. Postal Service has a problem with “rude” employees manning their customer service windows. Its inspector general said the agency has so many inconsiderate workers that, by driving away unhappy customers, it could lose nearly $300 million in fiscal 2015. The report states that USPS’ negative customer feedback went up 9% from FY 2012 to FY 2013, and that 20% of customers said they were treated “worse than other retailers” at their post office.   read more

In 2014, Oklahoma experienced 585 earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or higher. That’s more than the state had had in the past 35 years combined. Not that leaders in Texas or Oklahoma—who are almost exclusively Republican—want to admit that fracking is behind the quakes. GOP Governor Mary Fallin has refused so far to admit that fracking is the cause. But professor Todd Halihan says there is no question of the relationship between fracking wells and the recent seismic activity in that state.   read more

Of the more than 3,000 Americans surveyed, 72% said they felt stress over money at least some of the time during the previous month. Thirty-one percent of respondents admitted that money-related stress was a significant source of conflict in their relationship. Despite benefits gained from Obamacare, healthcare costs continue to be a stressor. Among lower-income Americans, 44% say paying for out-of-pocket health care costs is a very or somewhat significant source of stress.   read more

The species, which once numbered in the billions across America, is now down to about 30 million, biologists say. A big reason for the die-off is the disappearance of the milkweed plant, which farmers have destroyed in large numbers while spraying Roundup-ready crops with herbicides. The milkweed is both a food source and a home for the monarch, and without it, the butterflies are struggling to survive. Roundup, a brand of glyphosate sold by Monsanto, is particularly lethal to milkweed.   read more

So far, the nationwide strike has impacted 13% of the U.S. oil refining capacity. The local Toledo union said the “strike is NOT about money, this is about addressing safety issues that have been ignored for way too long … 138 workers were killed on the job while extracting, producing, or supporting oil and gas in 2012 … the number was more than double that of 2009.” Workers in the gas and oil industry are said to be six times more likely to die on the job than other American workers.   read more

As Deputy Secretary of Defense, Carter’s duties included increasing the department’s “buying power,” according to his agency biography. That expansion featured the development of the F-35 fighter jet, said to be the most expensive weapon system in history. Its price tag: $1.5 trillion, according to RSN. The F-35 program has been plagued with problems, including the suspension of all flights of the plane after a fire broke out in one of the jets during takeoff in 2014.   read more

Samsung’s privacy policy informs consumers their smart TVs will listen to people in the same room to pick up commands or queries, then send them to a third party. “If I were the customer, I might like to know who that third party was...and whether my words were being transmitted in a secure form,” said EFF's Corynne McSherry. EFF posted the Samsung policy with a reference to George Orwell's novel 1984, which describes home TV screens that monitor people’s private conversations.   read more

Critics of fracking thought they had won a victory when Wyoming became the first state to require drillers to reveal the chemicals used in the controversial drilling process. But a significant loophole in the law allowed businesses to continue to withhold details on grounds that releasing them would expose trade secrets. After a protracted legal fight, companies will have to “substantiate their trade secrets claims with more facts and evidence.”   read more

The appearance of Cerritos native Rene Enriquez was meant to be an educational experience “to learn how a transnational criminal enterprise was built, branded and marketed,” according to a statement by the LAPD. The event’s sponsor, the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), produced Enriquez on January 28 for the private meeting and PowerPoint presentation amid heavy security. Refreshments were served.   read more

Experts inside the government have worried for some time about the vulnerability posed to vital government and private installations by small hobby drones. These aircraft can be weaponized, equipping them with explosives or even automatic firearms, they say. Officials in the United States, Germany, Spain and Egypt have “foiled at least six potential terrorist attacks with drones since 2011,” according to The Wall Street Journal.   read more

The CDC reported that secondhand smoke caused more than 40,000 fatalities annually from 2005 to 2009. Of these deaths, 34,000 were heart-related and 7,300 were from lung cancer. Exposure to secondhand smoke dropped overall, but children and minorities are disproportionally affected by it. In 1993, 43% of individuals reported banning smoking in their houses and apartments. That rate climbed to 83% by 2011.   read more