Now, it’s down to Representatives Bill Foster (D-Illinois) and Jerry McNerney (D-California). Members of the scientific community are concerned about the nation’s leading legislative body making decisions affecting science with so few voices of authority in physics, biology and chemistry. “What we are sorely missing in the Congress today are those who are science-minded,” said Mary Woolley, president of Research! America. “We are skating on thin ice.”   read more

The lawsuit says the juror objects to how prosecutor Bob McCulloch has been able to speak out about the case and his characterization of the grand jury’s decision. The documents McCulloch released “do not fully portray the proceedings before the grand jury.” St. Louis Public Radio said “the Wilson case was handled in a very different manner than other grand juries...presenting thousands of pages worth of evidence and testimony...[and] characteriz[ing] the grand jury as co-investigators.”   read more

A few years ago, Detroit was a poster child for the problem of unprocessed kits, with more than 11,000 of them as of 2009. To date, the struggling Michigan city has managed to process 2,000 kits, thanks to funding from the National Institute of Justice. Those 2,000 turned up 750 DNA matches, leading to nearly two dozen warrants and 14 convictions for Wayne County. Detroit’s efforts also found 188 serial rapists responsible for crimes in 27 other states.   read more

Navy investigators began investigating O’Neill after he told Fox News in November that he was the commando who fired the fatal shot at the al Qaeda leader. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is not saying whether the alleged disclosure of government secrets is related to the 2011 mission. If the NCIS determines there is sufficient evidence against O’Neill, he could be recalled back into the service for the purpose of facing a court-martial trial.   read more

Much to the consternation of statisticians and economists, the U.S. Census Bureau is planning to stop asking whether a person was married or divorced in the previous year. Justin Wolfers, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, characterized the proposed change as a serious impediment for experts to learn and study about the American family.   read more

The biggest culprit among the thousands of leaking gas wells is the one in New Mexico's San Juan Basin, which is the most active coalbed methane production area in the U.S. Much of the gas from the wells escapes via leaking pipes or when it is released into the atmosphere by companies that are only drilling for oil. Some of those firms burn off the methane, which converts it into carbon monoxide, another greenhouse gas that forms a brownish pall blanketing the sky.   read more

The Ebola scare took over the news cycle for weeks last fall, but when all was said and done, it was responsible for only two deaths in the United States. Another disease that is far more communicable is already responsible for the deaths of 15 U.S. children but has received comparatively little attention. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the flu is responsible for those deaths, and that every state can expect to report flu cases “within the next few weeks,”   read more

The Military Lending Act of 2006 was intended to protect military members and their families from being gouged by lenders offering payday and auto title loans. But it contained several loopholes that opened the way for predatory loan providers to charge military families more than the 36% interest allowed by law. Lenders can easily do this by offering different terms than those proscribed in the law.   read more

Four years ago, the General Services Administration (GSA) was caught spending more than $800,000 in taxpayer money on a lavish conference in Las Vegas. The fallout included the firing of two GSA managers who were accused by the agency of not providing better oversight of those who planned the event. Now a civil service review board has ruled that the agency was wrong to fire the managers and the GSA has been ordered to reinstate them and give them 30 months of back pay.   read more

For the family of 18-year-old Natasha Weigel, who died after her GM-made car’s ignition switch shut off just before her fatal accident, getting a lawyer to help them sue GM has proven challenging. One law firm turned down the Weigels in 2007, saying the state’s cap of $350,000 for “maximum recovery for loss...and the extreme expense of litigating the case against General Motors” left them disinclined to get involved.   read more

The York City School District developed financial difficulties two years ago, which led to the appointment of a local businessman, David Meckley, as the chief recovery officer. That put him in charge of most of the district’s financial matters. But now Judge Stephen P. Linebaugh turned control of the district to Meckley, who has advocated for converting all eight of the local public schools to charter schools that would be run by a for-profit company, Charter Schools USA.   read more

In 2008, the EPA issued regulations that would allow some areas extra time to comply with a Clean Air Act-mandated reduction in the allowable amounts of ground-level ozone, which is a product of fossil fuel consumption. Ozone is hard on those with respiratory problems and has been linked to nervous system disorders and heart ailments.   read more

Jeff Fox wrote in his State of the Net blog that companies routinely reveal passwords in plain text while emailing customers. This can happen when a user forgets a password and asks for it to be sent to him or her. Among those who Fox has caught doing this are AT&T, The New York Times, Macy’s and Princess Cruises. Users often use the same password for more than one account, so exposure on an online shopping service could lead to a hacker accessing a bank account.   read more

The FDA’s decision ends a rule in effect since 1983, when AIDS was just beginning to enter the American consciousness. Gay rights advocates complained that the new rule still discriminates against gay men, who must remain celibate for 12 months to give blood, while heterosexual men are only subject to the same year-long restriction if they have sex with prostitutes or with those who use injectable drugs.   read more

John Roth, the inspector general (IG) for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the Secret Service, recently said the agency refused to provide data on its computer security systems. Roth’s request came as part of an audit (pdf) into DHS’ computer networks. Roth said he was told that the Secret Service wouldn’t release data on its unclassified security systems “due to concerns for operational safety.”   read more

The Marshall Project, a nonpartisan news organization, says appellate courts have reversed at least 10 convictions in just the last two years because district attorneys’ offices went too far in using PowerPoint slides to unfairly influence jurors. In some instances, the slides have featured animation and sound effects, including using bull’s-eye images to zero in on a defendant’s photo and declare them “GUILTY” in bright red letters.   read more