In 2004, Semonite was sent to Iraq and charged with restoring electricity to the country, whose infrastructure had been severely damaged in the fighting. He also worked to provide power on a fair basis, unlike former Iraqi Premier Saddam Hussein, who had favored Sunni Muslim areas when building power lines. Semonite was sent to Afghanistan in 2014 to head up the effort to rebuild not infrastructure, but that country’s armed forces and police department.   read more

The GAO reported that Chao’s Wage and Hour Division had consistently failed to follow up on reports of wage theft, and that WHD staffers often failed to pick up the phone when called by those seeking help. Chao made $1.2 million as a director at Wells Fargo, which holds more than $400 million in Trump mortgages. As DOT secretary, she will be able to regulate the business of her father, who has given millions to his daughter and her husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell.   read more

Stewart is the first Marine, and the first African-American, to lead the Defense Intelligence Agency. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, he earned master’s degrees, including in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College. His first specialty was tanks, but he moved into signals intelligence--the gathering of data from radio transmissions. Since taking over DIA, Stewart said he wants to build an information system that will facilitate sharing of data among intelligence services.   read more

Price has long been a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a right-wing group that has fought against anti-smoking campaigns; opposed mandatory vaccinations; linked vaccines to autism and abortion to breast cancer, in both cases without medical evidence; and denied that the HIV virus causes AIDS. In the Georgia Senate, he advocated for caps on medical malpractice awards and fought efforts to make it easier for Georgia’s undocumented immigrants to get drivers licenses.   read more

Among his achievements was his documentation of George W. Bush administration firings of four U.S. Attorneys for partisan reasons and its packing of the Civil Rights Division with political appointees. His office also investigated the FBI’s handling of Zacarias Moussaoui, who had enrolled in a flight school as part of the 9/11 terror plot. Fine’s office was critical of the bureau for not taking the threat posed by Moussaoui seriously.   read more

Hyatt attended Sidwell Friends School, where many children of presidents, other government figures and those in the media have gone. In 1983 he worked for Bain & Co. in Boston, London and Munich, then in 1989 became a principal and partner in a conflict management group. He founded a similar firm, CMI New York, in 1997. Among other things, that company trained negotiators involved in constitutional talks between the old South African government and the African National Congress.   read more

Starmer joined the USDA in 2011, initially helping develop the “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” program. In 2015, she was made a senior adviser to Secretary Tom Vilsack. Not long after starting at the Agricultural Marketing Service, Starmer had to defuse a controversy when the American Egg Board was accused of trying to thwart the sales of an eggless mayonnaise. The head of the egg board stepped down and was replaced by Starmer’s predecessor at the AMS, Anne Alonzo.   read more

With the help of VP Pence, the Senate fulfilled Donald Trump’s desire to fill the Education Secretary position with a billionaire heiress with no experience in education who advocates privatizing the public school system despite having never attended public schools nor allowing her children to do so. She advocates privatizing public schools and allowing them to be more religiously oriented. Devos has compared her work to a biblical battleground where she wants to “advance God’s Kingdom.”   read more

The FDA has approved Spinraza, the first drug to treat patients with spinal muscular atrophy, a disease that can kill infants before they turn 2. Biogen, which is licensing it from Ionis, said one dose will cost $125,000--equaling up to $750,000 to cover the the first year, and about $375,000 annually after that. Patients presumably take it the rest of their lives. The pricing could put it in the cross hairs of lawmakers and perhaps discourage insurers from covering it.   read more

No sooner had President Obama called the Clean Power Plan “the single most important step that America has ever made in the fight against global climate change” than his Republican antagonists vowed to defeat it. But if If Donald Trump withdraws from the plan, his administration will meet 15 states battered by climate change in court. Trump has long attacked rising global temperatures as a hoax, and he has appointed fossil fuel executives and environmental opponents to top cabinet posts.   read more

The nation’s jail and prison population decreased in 2015, and the number of adults locked up or on parole or probation fell to a level not seen since 2002 while overall crime continued to drop. Reasons for the declining incarceration rates include the federal prison system releasing thousands of nonviolent drug offenders in 2015 and states seeking to save money by enacting legislation and policies to reduce prison populations. Total prison population: 1.5 million,the lowest level since 2005.   read more

Thousands of court records and internal agency documents showed that over the last 10 years almost 200 employees and contract workers of Homeland Security have taken nearly $15 million in bribes. These employees have looked the other way as tons of drugs and thousands of unauthorized immigrants were smuggled into the U.S. They have illegally sold green cards, given sensitive information to drug cartels, and even arranged the attempted murder of an informant.   read more

When Trump takes office, Republican attorneys general will go from challenging Obama's most contentious policies in court to providing legal backup for Trump's agenda. And Democratic-run states are set to take the offensive, challenging Trump's efforts. Already, California Gov. Brown has warned he'll fight Trump if he tries to ditch Obama's global warming initiatives. "If Trump turns off the satellites," Brown said of climate monitoring, "California will launch its own damn satellite."   read more

Critics say some panel members have financial ties to biotech businesses that could color the panel’s report, potentially giving short shrift to health and environmental worries. “Several members of this committee stand to benefit directly or indirectly from the rules and regulations their recommendations will help shape,” said FWW's Tim Schwab. “Nor does the committee include anyone who might advocate a more judicious approach to regulating the industry.”   read more

The U.S. again ranked first in global weapons sales last year, signing deals for about $40 billion, or half of all agreements in the worldwide arms bazaar and far ahead of France, the No. 2 weapons dealer with $15 billion in sales. Developing nations continued to be the largest buyers of arms, with Qatar signing deals for more than $17 billion in weapons last year, followed by Egypt, which agreed to buy almost $12 billion in arms, and Saudi Arabia, with over $8 billion in weapons purchases.   read more

From flag-burning to libel, from conflicts of interest to torture, Donald Trump has made comments that have suggested he was either unaware of the applicable laws or didn't care about them. "Nearly every president has probably done something that a court has later held unconstitutional or contrary to law,'' said prof. Karlan. ``But I can't think of one who had such an across-the-board combination of ignorance, indifference and defiance.'' Added prof. Rakove: “He's consistently uninformed."   read more