“We’re talking about changing the rules at the last minute,” Hughes said. Dallas Woodhouse, the Republican official, eventually fled into the building, where lawmakers from his party introduced a flurry of bills during a surprise special session this week to undermine Cooper by stripping him of his ability to make key appointments to state and local boards and mandating, for the first time, legislative approval of his Cabinet. “They will see me in court,” Cooper warned.   read more

The judge blocked an executive order offering protections to LGBT employees in state government as unconstitutional. Judge Hernandez ruled that Gov. Edwards acted outside the scope of his authority when he created the anti-discrimination law. “We continue to believe that discrimination is not a Louisiana value and that we are best served as a state when employment decisions are based solely on an individual’s qualifications and job performance,” the governor said   read more

An Energy Dept official called the 74 questions a hit list and said Trump's team appeared to be going after top scientists and employees working on the Iran nuclear deal and climate change. Some questions left DOE workers "unsettled," and others could cast doubt on Trump's commitment to scientific independence — a fundamental tenet at the agency. Democrats called the questionairre a modern-day political witch hunt that could have a chilling impact on federal workers.   read more

The report, the largest and most comprehensive of its kind to date on the effects of fracking on water supply, comes as President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to expand fracking and roll back existing regulations on the process. His choice to run the EPA, Scott Pruitt, attorney general from Oklahoma, has built his career on fighting EPA regulations on energy exploration. He now faces scientific findings that urge caution in an energy sector that Trump wants to untether.   read more

Gov. Christie has made no secret of his disdain for the news media. The bill would eliminate requirement for public notices, which could cost already-strapped newspapers millions in ad revenue. “It’s a broadside against a free press, nothing more, nothing less,” said Assemblyman Wisniewsk. “I think it’s revenge.” Legal notices are a longstanding tradition in America, dating back more than 200 years.   read more

The lawsuit "seeks public disclosure of specified government records to make sense of the pivotal role of the FBI, as well as of other agencies, in perhaps the most controversial presidential election in modern U.S. history.” It notes that several people have credited the FBI, which claims to be apolitical, with swinging the election in Donald Trump’s favor. The suit comes on the heels of CIA accusations that Russia interfered with the U.S. election to sway it in favor of Trump.   read more

Perry was a harsh critic of Trump, even calling the billionaire businessman a "cancer to conservatism," but later endorsed him. Perry has been a vocal skeptic on climate change and is likely to shift the department away from renewable energy and toward oil and other fossil fuels. Sierra Club's Michael Brune called it "an insult to our functioning democracy. Putting Perry in charge of the Department of Energy is the perfect way to ensure the agency fails at everything it is charged to do."   read more

With the incoming Trump administration seemingly committed to deporting undocumented individuals, there is worry among immigration advocates that the identifying data collected as part of these driver license programs could be used by federal authorities looking to send people back to their home countries. ICE might have to rely on its subpoena power. Even then, states could refuse to provide the information, thereby forcing the federal government to sue for the driver data.   read more

American students have a math problem. "We're losing ground — a troubling prospect when, in today's knowledge-based economy, the best jobs can go anywhere in the world," said Education Secretary John B. King Jr. The PISA study is the latest to document that American students are underperforming their peers in several Asian nations. "Everything is just going down," said Peggy Carr, acting commissioner at the National Center for Education Statistics.   read more

Republican lawmakers effectively blocked Obama safety rules aimed at keeping tired truckers off the highway. But there's more coming down the road. American Trucking is pledging to come back next month, when Republicans are in control, and try to block state laws that require additional rest breaks for truckers beyond what federal rules require. The group says there should be one national rule on work hours for interstate truckers and that the extra breaks aren't necessary for safety.   read more

Recording interrogations is a way to know whether police can be confident in the confessions that result. City officials say that 5,000 interrogations have been recorded, and that every detective bureau now has the equipment. But two judges testified that they had seen few cases in which the interrogations — as opposed to the confessions — were recorded. “One can speculate that some old-fashioned detectives may not want to have their methods on video as it might embarrass them,” said Dwyer.   read more

Deaths from synthetic opioids, including illicit fentanyl, rose 73 percent to 9,580. And prescription painkillers took the highest toll, but posted the smallest increase. Abuse of drugs like Oxycontin and Vicodin killed 17,536, an increase of 4 percent. "I don't think we've ever seen anything like this. Certainly not in modern times," said Robert Anderson, who oversees death statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.   read more

Inside a book about the Quran, someone had written “lies cover to cover,” drawn a swastika and made a disparaging remark about the Prophet Muhammad. Six more books about Islam and the Quran that had been similarly defaced with racist language and imagery. Authorities say the spate of hate crimes targeting libraries, their books or patrons had rarely seen before. These crimes coincide with a recent FBI report that attacks against American Muslims surged last year.   read more

Business groups note that experts predict negative economic fallout should Trump pursue mass deportation. A study by right-leaning American Action Network found that such a plan could reduce "real GDP by $1 trillion" and cost taxpayers more than $400 billion. Public opinion appears to be on their side. One survey found that 60% of Trump backers said immigrants in the country illegally should be able to stay. A third of Trump supporters said law enforcement should deport all such immigrants.   read more

New Mexico leads the nation with a backlog of 5,000 untested evidence kits from sexual assaults. Audit officer Sarita Nair said the "heartbreaking" statistics reinforce the concerns of sex assault victims who are reluctant to come forward for fear of not being believed. "When we see a kit on a shelf and the reason is a lack of perceived victim credibility, we're just sort of reinforcing those worst fears and we're discouraging people from coming forward — and that just has to stop," she said.   read more

Soaring use of e-cigarettes among young people “is now a major public health concern,” according to the surgeon general. The report from the nation’s highest public-health authority finds that e-cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product among youths, surpassing tobacco cigarettes. E-cigarettes, which turn nicotine into inhalable vapor, can harm developing brains of teenagers who use them and also can create harmful aerosol for people around the user.   read more