Thousands of people have had their prepaid debit cards frozen when they try to direct their tax refund to their accounts, a result of financial industry efforts to combat an escalation in tax fraud. It's keeping people from their money, and delaying access to much-anticipated tax refunds. People who rely on prepaid debit card accounts are often poorer Americans who don't have traditional bank accounts. The IRS and industry representatives wouldn't say if freezes were requested or required.   read more

Congress has mandated that the DNI produce and make public the reports on so-called recidivism by former detainees. They contain aggregate data based on intelligence assessments but do not give names or places. Intelligence analysts now believe that an additional former Guantánamo Bay detainee has engaged in terrorist activity after his release, while seven more have been added to a roster of those who might be causing problems, according to data disclosed on Monday.   read more

With heroin cheap and widely available on city streets throughout the country, users are making their buys and shooting up as soon as they can, often in public places. Police officers are routinely finding drug users — unconscious or dead — in cars, in bathrooms of restaurants, on mass transit and in parks, hospitals and libraries. Nationally, 125 people a day die from overdosing on heroin and painkillers, and many more are brought back from the brink of death — often in full public view.   read more

The Remote Sensing System temperature data, promoted by many who reject mainstream climate science and especially most recently by Sen. Ted Cruz, now shows a slight warming of about 0.18 degrees Fahrenheit since 1998. "There are people that like to claim there was no warming; they really can't claim that anymore," said Carl Mears, the scientist who runs the Remote Sensing System temperature data tracking.   read more

U.S. efforts to stop the illegal slaughter of elephants, rhinos and other wildlife brought has slowed but not stopped the worldwide smuggling trade that threatens the survival of species, according to a federal progress report released Thursday. Twenty percent of African elephants have died in the past decade and one of every 20 wild rhinos was killed by a poacher in the last year alone.   read more

Chief Justice John Roberts on Thursday refused to block an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation limiting emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants. Roberts rejected an application from 20 states that said a federal appeals court in Washington had effectively thwarted their victory in the Supreme Court in June, when the high court ruled that the EPA had failed to take into account the punishing costs its mercury regulation would impose.   read more

High prices for cancer medicines aren't the only reason they cost insurers and patients so much. Waste pads the bill, a study finds, because cancer drugs are distributed in the U.S. in vials that usually contain more medicine than most patients need. Most of the time that excess is thrown out, even though it's perfectly good — and worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. Researchers estimate that wasted cancer medicine in the U.S. this year will add up to nearly $3 billion in excess costs.   read more

It wasn't just one question; it was a string of them in an exchange that lasted several minutes. Thomas' gravelly voice unexpectedly filled the courtroom and enlivened an otherwise sleepy argument about gun rights. He peppered Justice Department lawyer Ilana Eisenstein with 10 or so questions that seemed to be a vigorous defense of the constitutional right to own a gun. It provoked gasps from the audience, but none of the other justices visibly reacted to Thomas' remarks.   read more

The lawsuit asks a judge to force the state to prevent women from being sexually abused by male guards. The prison culture permits supposed "willing" or "consensual" sexual contact between prisoners and guards even though "state law, prison policy, and common sense make clear that women in custody are unable to consent in the coercive prison environment," the lawsuit said. Guards are so unlikely to be punished for misbehavior that they freely disregard policies that would stop them, it said.   read more

The tax collecting agency said 390,000 more taxpayer accounts may have compromised than the 334,000 it warned about a year and a half ago. The breach was first discovered in May 2015, and the increase first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The sensitive information can be used for identity theft or to claim fraudulent tax refunds. In addition, hackers have tried to access almost 600,000 additional IRS accounts in an attempt to gain private information on taxpayers.   read more

A Washington spy court's "secret, ex parte proceedings" do not provide the oversight required to restrain the NSA's Upstream program, a privacy group argued in a court filing Thursday. Brought to light by Edward Snowden, the NSA program Upstream intercepts traffic from what has been called the "Internet's backbone." Last year, the ACLU represented nine media and human rights groups in challenging the program for its "suspicionless seizure and searching of Internet traffic."   read more

The change would relax longstanding restrictions on access to the contents of the phone calls and email the NSA vacuums up around the world, including bulk collection of satellite transmissions, communications between foreigners, and overseas messages. The idea is to let more experts across U.S. intelligence gain direct access to unprocessed information. Civil liberties advocates criticized the change, arguing it will weaken privacy protections.   read more

The procurement network stretches to 20 countries, with some parts originating as far away as the United States, Brazil, China and Japan. The IS group has a considerable amount of military-grade weapons and supplies taken from captured army bases in Syria and Iraq, including machine guns, mortars and U.S.-made armored Humvees. It also likely acquires weapons and ammunition on the black market. The most commonly used explosive was made with ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer.   read more

Apple is challenging government efforts to overcome encryption on at least 14 electronic devices nationwide in addition to the phone of a San Bernardino. At an October hearing, Zwillinger said Apple feared the government would try "pushing the law to a new frontier" by forcing the company to modify software or change its products. "We're being forced to become an agent of law enforcement, and we cannot be forced to do that with our old devices or with our new devices," he said.   read more

Rep. Mac Thornberry topped the list of recipients with $941,700 in contributions made by employees of and political action committees sponsored by companies that do business with the Defense Dept. Thornberry's single largest group of donors, $153,400, are affiliated with defense giant Lockheed Martin. The company is manufacturing the F-35 Fighter, the single most expensive military project in history. Thornberry's congressional district abuts the district where the F-35 is manufactured.   read more

The findings by U.S. Health and Human Services' Inspector General include that the Medicaid agency did not — as of 2013 — have a security plan for its computer system, had no encryption for laptops and had not properly trained employees. The review followed the massive hacking at the state's Revenue Dept, which involved data stolen from the electronically filed tax returns of 3.8 million adults and 700,000 businesses. The stolen data included unencrypted Social Security and bank account numbers.   read more