Even the state of Alaska, normally sympathetic to oil interests, has taken notice of the problem. A 2013 report called the problem “unprecedented…due to the distance that sulfolane has traveled in groundwater, and the number of properties affected with private drinking water wells.”   read more

The target of the federal case is FastTrain II Corporation and its owner, Alejandro Amor, who ran seven private schools across Florida until they closed in 2012. The complaint says that the company “employed female exotic dancers as admissions representatives at least one campus to lure young male students.” A 15-count indictment against FastTrain says it conspired to steal government funds by filing false claims with the Education Department.   read more

With so much riding on the success of the new health law, the Obama administration felt it necessary to inflate the number of Americans who had signed up for health insurance. They tried pulling off this statistical sleight of hand by combining the number of people who had purchased dental coverage on the exchanges with those buying health insurance. Somehow, the officials didn’t think anyone would notice…despite the fact they had previously reported the dental and medical totals separately.   read more

Tom Colicchio, José Andrés, Art Smith and Sam Talbot are among the 700 chefs supporting a congressional bill mandating GMO labeling. The petition they signed states: “As chefs, we know that choosing the right ingredients is an absolutely critical part of cooking. But when it comes to whether our ingredients contain genetically modified organisms, we're in the dark. It’s time for Congress to move us forward, not backward, when it comes to our right to know what’s in our food.”   read more

Tom Atchison makes those living at his homeless facility work concession stands at various sporting events. The homeless also perform construction, landscaping, telemarketing, moving, painting, and grant-writing for Atchison. No salaries are provided for the jobs they perform. They receive only food and shelter. All of the money earned at the concession stands goes to Atchison's operation.   read more

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS), which was already hamstrung by Congress’ mandate that it prefund future retirees’ health benefits and prohibition from closing some post offices, might soon have another roadblock in its way. This time, it would come from legislative inaction. The Senate is dragging its feet on confirming members of the USPS Board of Governors, which could mean that the agency will be unable to make any major decisions.   read more

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported only 27 law enforcement officers were killed by criminals last year. That figure is far smaller than any since before 1968. The 2012 number was 49. Except for 2011, when 72 were killed, the number has hovered between 41 and 58 since 2004 and had been trending down for many years. The high in recent decades was 134 police feloniously killed in 1973.   read more

Senator-Elect Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), who attacked Obama for his “lawless actions,” as a member of the House sponsored a bill to help a Sudanese woman, Meriam Yahya Ibrahim, and her two children, after Ibrahim was sentenced to death for apostasy after converting to Christianity. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California), having characterized Obama’s action as “a naked power grab,” filed a bill to assist the Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, who helped the U.S. in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.   read more

Even Sen. Rand Paul, one of the most outspoken opponents of the federal 1033 program, which provides military surplus equipment to law enforcement, suddenly stopped talking about demilitarizing the police after labor groups lobbied Congress. Paul and other politicians quit talking about it because groups like the National Sheriffs Association and the Fraternal Order of Police had their members call Congress to say how important it was to use military-type weapons for public safety purposes.   read more

Global warming has taken its toll on Glacier National Park, which by 2030 may lose all of its current glaciers, about 25. Also, water for irrigation downstream is drying up and the trout population has fallen to the point where anglers must catch and release them instead of having them for dinner. U.S. Geological Survey is now frantically documenting what’s left of the park’s namesakes. A program is underway to photograph the ice sheets before they turn to water.   read more

It turns out that the person who controls your schedule and has the right to make your job—and life—difficult isn’t really your supervisor. Last year’s 5-4 Vance v. Ball State decision (pdf) by the Supreme Court significantly narrowed the definition of what a supervisor is and in doing so made it easier for companies to get away with having employees who harass others.   read more

Insys Therapeutics, maker of the drug Subsys, paid millions of dollars to physicians to prescribe the product, which is approved only for cancer patients who are already taking opioid drugs constantly for pain. However, only 1% of Subsys prescriptions have been written by oncologists, according to The New York Times.   read more

Residents of Irving, Texas, near Dallas, have been rocked by several earthquakes in the past week. The first, and so far the biggest, was a 3.3 magnitude temblor last Saturday. There was a 2.5 on Sunday, followed by a 2.2 and a 2.3 on Monday and a 2.7 on Tuesday. Some have blamed the quakes on the fracking wells situated around the area.   read more

The Clean Air Act was signed by President Richard Nixon in 1970 and gave the newly created Environmental Protection Agency and states the power they needed to clean up the atmosphere. George H.W. Bush followed in 1990 by strengthening the Act to allow more regulations to be issued. Now, since Congress has been unable to pass a bill to combat global warming, President Barack Obama is using the Clean Air Act’s provisions to attempt to mitigate climate change,   read more

Inside the controversial texts are “factual inaccuracies and exaggerations of Moses’ impact on the founding of the U.S.” Before some revisions were made, the books were even worse. They contained a cartoon mocking affirmative action recipients, de-emphasis of slavery’s role in the Civil War, negative stereotypes of Muslims, and denials of climate change. Board member Marisa Perez said she was not proud of the board’s decision, which relied on a “screwy” process involving textbook publishers.   read more

“We should be allowing these wounded warriors access to the medicine that will help them survive and thrive, including medical marijuana, not treating them like criminals,” said Rep. Blumenauer. As it is now, VA staff aren’t even allowed to fill out paperwork to allow a vet to enroll in a legal state marijuana program. If the bill becomes law, it could help many vets who suffer from PTSD, which includes 20% of the 2.8 million soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.   read more