"Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood,” Pope Francis told Congress. Defense contractors have profited mightily during the Obama administration, during which arms sales to foreign governments outpaced even those during the George W. Bush administration.   read more

Government agencies on average spend $130,000 on privacy protection. That compares to $250,000 in a regulated private company, such as banking and healthcare, and $300,000 in a non-regulated company. Sixty-three percent of government respondents said they’re not spending enough on privacy training, compared to 48% overall.   read more

Since its passage in 1970, the Clean Air Act has resulted in more stringent pollution standards, which have made it possible for people who lived in areas once blanketed in smog to improve their life expectancy. Those in Wichita, Kansas, are living 4.3 years longer, while residents of Phoenix, Arizona are living nearly four years longer. Even people living in Los Angeles, once the smog capital of the country, are living a year and eight months longer.   read more

Increases in deductibles have outpaced increases in wages. “Deductibles have risen more than six times faster than workers’ earnings since 2010,” wrote Abelson. Deductibles also have become more common for employees, with about 80% now being forced to pay them. “Asking employees to cover more of their medical bills through high deductibles raises questions about whether some workers...are being discouraged from seeking the care they need,” wrote Abelson.   read more

The inquiries relate to the use of a Polish intelligence base from 2002 to 2003 to question terrorism suspects, using so-called enhanced interrogation techniques—or torture. One request was for an unedited copy of the U.S. Senate report on CIA torture. Former Polish president Kwaśniewski, publicly admitted his country was asked to provide a “quiet location” for questioning suspects following the September 11 attacks. But he claimed no authorization was given for the harsh treatment of detainees.   read more

The suit claims the court system has thrown defendants, mostly poor, in jail with no date of hearing or release. Those arrested for unpaid fees are subject to a $20,000 bond. “Despite longstanding Supreme Court precedent that the government cannot imprison people just because they are poor, New Orleans officials routinely use jail...to collect court debts from thousands of the City’s poorest people,” the suit says. “The result is an illegal...modern debtors’ prison."   read more

The raping of boys bothered many soldiers. Those that took action to stop it have been punished by the military. Dan Quinn, a former Special Forces captain, was relieved of his command after he beat up an American-backed militia commander who kept a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave. “The reason we were here is because we heard the terrible things the Taliban were doing to people,” Quinn said “But we were putting people into power who would do things that were worse than the Taliban did...”   read more

The Obama administration has once again allowed a big corporation to buy its way out of jail. This time, the corporation is General Motors, which was fined $900 million for covering up its faulty ignition switches that caused at least 124 deaths. Thousands of GM cars had the faulty ignition switch, which could cause the car’s engine to switch off without warning. GM engineers knew early on that the switch was problematic, but didn’t begin recalling affected vehicles until February 2014.   read more

Trust in the judicial branch has fallen, with only 53% of respondents saying they have “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of trust in the courts. That’s down from 76% six years ago and the decline can be attributed to the numbers plummeting among Republicans. Only 42% of Republicans say they trust the third branch of government, falling 17 points in the past year.   read more

A report from the U.S. Census Bureau show the gender wage gap reached an all-time low last year. Women who were fully employed earned 78.6% of what men made, up from 77.6% in 2013. The gap is the smallest since 1960 when the Census Bureau began collecting such data. But the improvement wasn’t much to speak of, according to Frida Garza at Quartz. “Put in context, there hasn’t been a meaningful narrowing of the country’s gender pay gap since 2007, when it was 77.8%,” she wrote.   read more

The research showed 94% of these murders were committed by men the victims knew. Of those who knew their killers, 62% were wives or other intimate acquaintances of the murderers. In the majority of cases, the murders occurred in the course of an argument between the two individuals, and a gun was usually used as the murder weapon. Black women were victims of this violence at a much higher rate than any other racial group—two-and-a-half times higher than the murder rate for white females.   read more

The reliance on outdated machines has resulted in unresponsive touchscreens, worn-out modems for transmitting election results, and failing motherboards and memory cards. The machines are prone to crashes and screen freezes, which can cause long lines at the polls and some voters to give up. Some are easily hacked, enabling an outsider to change votes without a trace. Some wealthier areas have been able to buy new machines, leaving the decrepit ones in areas with poorer voters.   read more

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been criticized for years about its bureaucratic jumble of offices that are supposed to prevent weapons of mass destruction from threatening the country. DHS came up with a plan to reduce duplication and internal squabbling so officials could address WMD plots. However, the plan for divided offices is drawing criticism. “It’s nonsensical,” said former security director Rick Nelson. "It doesn’t make sense to any of us,” echoed a senior DHS employee.   read more

“The loss of civilian life in Hajja shows why most countries have made a commitment never to use cluster munitions,” said Solvang. “These weapons not only kill or injure people at the time of attack, but the unexploded submunitions go on killing long afterward.” The Obama administration is going through with a deal to sell Saudi Arabia more weapons and missiles. "Bombs have fallen so far from any military target that human rights groups say such airstrikes amount to war crimes," said the Times.   read more

“Celebrating” the holiday with shootings was most popular in Chicago, where nine people were killed and 46 wounded with guns over the weekend. Charlotte, North Carolina, was also busy, with five people killed and 12 wounded.   read more

Derrick Hunter and Lee Sullivan are accused in the 2013 shooting death of Jaquan Rice and the wounding of his girlfriend. The defendants subpoenaed Facebook, Instagram and Twitter seeking the private messages of Rice and Renesha Lee, Sullivan’s former girlfriend and a prosecution witness. Defense attorneys say the records will help them prove that Rice was a dangerous criminal who had threatened others and that Lee was motivated by jealousy.   read more