Rep. Jeb Hensarling's intent to gut Dodd-Frank comes as no surprise; he has received nearly $5.5 million in campaign contributions from key financial industry interests since 2010. Furthermore, Hensarling’s House Financial Services Committee has become a revolving door with numerous members of his staff either coming from, or leaving to work in, the financial industry.   read more

Shelter managers in Hawaii are scrambling to figure out how to keep a roof over the heads of hundreds of homeless people, and similar cuts are being made across the nation this month as the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) shifts its grant money to programs that focus on permanent housing.   read more

The timing of the donation by Trump is notable because the now presumptive Republican presidential nominee has said he expects and receives favors from politicians to whom he gives money. "When I want something I get it," Trump said. "When I call, they kiss my ass. It's true." AP has reported that then-Texas Attorney Greg Abbott received $35,000 from Trump, three years after his office in 2010 dropped a proposed lawsuit over Trump U. Both Bondi and Abbott have now endorsed Trump for president.   read more

Many more babies die in the United States than you might think. In 2014, more than 23,000 infants died in their first year of life, or about six for every 1,000 born. According to the CDC, 25 other industrialized nations do better than the U.S. at keeping babies alive. Most assume that high infant mortality is because of poor prenatal care. But new evidence is coming to light that contradicts that conclusion. This could change our thinking about the problem.   read more

Trump was slow to denounce the white supremacist David Duke and talked approvingly of beating up protesters. He has praised Putin and promised to be friends. He would not condemn supporters who launched anti-Semitic blasts at journalists. “This could be one of those moments that’s quite dangerous, and we’ll look back and wonder why we treated it as ho-hum at a time when we could have stopped it,” said Robert Kagan, a scholar at the Brookings Institution.   read more

After more than 1,100 deaths exposed dangerous conditions in Bangladesh in 2013, brands like H&M, Wal-Mart and Gap were among the most powerful companies that pledged to improve the safety of the poorest workers. But human rights groups say that three years later, those promises are still unfulfilled. In Cambodia, for instance, workers toil 10 to 14 hours a day in sweltering heat, without clean drinking water or breaks. In Bangladesh, buildings have no fire exits where thousands work.   read more

Many conservative scholars warn that electing Trump is a recipe for a constitutional crisis. Trump already said he'd “loosen” libel laws to make it easier to sue news groups. He has encouraged rough treatment of demonstrators. His proposal to bar Muslims tests guarantees of religious freedom. “You would like a president with some idea about constitutional limits on presidential powers...” Barnett said, “and I doubt he has any [such] awareness.” Said Post: “This is how authoritarianism starts."   read more

"Only time will tell whether our society will prove capable of preserving age-old privacy protections in this increasingly networked era. But one thing is sure: this Court's decision today will do nothing to advance that effort," wrote dissenting Judge Wynn. Lynch said the decision "has an impact for anyone that carries a cellphone [or who uses] any Internet-based device...shared with a third party. All of that information could be available to law enforcement without a warrant at this point."   read more

The five have grown invincible to just about any competition. Their powers are a source of pride and fear for Americans. These companies dominate the news and entertainment industries, they rule ad and retail sales, and they’re pushing into health care, energy and autos. In the rest of the world, they are often seen as a reason for fear, not comfort. In part that’s because of a worry about U.S. hegemony: The bigger these companies get, the more room for possible spying by the U.S. government.   read more

The risk score proved remarkably unreliable: Only 20% of the people predicted to commit violent crimes actually went on to do so. When a full range of crimes were taken into account, the algorithm was somewhat more accurate than a coin flip. The formula was particularly likely to falsely flag black defendants as future criminals, wrongly labeling them this way at almost twice the rate as white defendants. And white defendants were mislabeled as low risk more often than black defendants.   read more

Some network officials concede that Trump can be unreliable, reversing himself on policies from one interview to the next. But they also say that Clinton — who is more reluctant to give interviews to print outlets than to television — is less comfortable interacting with the media, sometimes keeping her out of the conversation. Still, the presence of Trump can be irresistible, especially in an election where viewership and advertising rates have soared, generating tens of millions of dollars.   read more

Billionaires don't become billionaires by being passive about their interests. Peter Thiel has devoted his almost unlimited means to lawsuits that promise to shutter a news organization he doesn't like. His campaign is in keeping with the pledge his favored candidate for president, Donald Trump, made to ease barriers to lawsuits against journalists. It's the flip side of the media realm’s new coin. Many fellow billionaires gained control of news organizations by buying them or starting them.   read more

In Connecticut, the Dept of Developmental Services is supposed to pass on alarming reports— those that might suggest abuse — to a state agency. But the federal investigation found that the oversight system failed at almost every level. A review of 152 “critical incidents” where residents came to harm found the state failed to follow up on 99% of incidents that should have raised “reasonable suspicions of abuse or neglect,” and that hospital staff failed to do so in all but one of 310 ER visits.   read more

Stonehenge eroding under the forces of extreme weather. The city of Venice slowly collapsing into its canals. The gradual flooding of the Statue of Liberty. Images like these, familiar from Hollywood climate-catastrophe thrillers, were evoked by a report released Thursday. That report highlights 31 sites in 29 countries that have already felt some impact from climate change, including well-known tourist destinations like Easter Island and Yellowstone National Park.   read more

The new analysis underscored the striking gap between Obama’s soaring vision of a world without nuclear arms, which he laid out during the first months of his presidency, and the tough geopolitical and bureaucratic realities of getting rid of those weapons. The lack of progress in both arms control and warhead dismantlement also seems to coincide with the administration’s push for sweeping nuclear modernizations and weapons upgrades, estimated to cost up to $1 trillion over three decades.   read more

Nonpartisan investigators found that about three-fourths of the $80 billion budget goes to keep aging technology running, and the increasing cost is shortchanging modernization. The computers date back more than 50 years in some cases. "Replacement parts for the system are difficult to find because they are now obsolete," GAO said of the Pentagon's 1970s-era computer system that's used to operate U.S. nuclear forces. Social Security's computer system dates back even farther--to the late 1950s.   read more