H.R. 1734 would delay implementation of coal ash disposal restrictions, allow utilities to avoid publicly posting contamination data, and permit companies to continue dumping coal ash into leaking surface impounds for as many as eight years after contamination is documented. The bill is sponsored by Rep. David McKinley (R-West Virginia), who appears to be doing the bidding of his sponsors. His top five political donors are companies in the coal, gas, landfill and mining industries.   read more

The failure to act on Capitol Hill is not a result of powerful lobbies pressuring lawmakers to avoid raising the gas tax. “Because it’s a tax, raising it has been decreed out of bounds by a combination of anti-tax orthodoxy among conservative Republicans and a fear of political backlash that spans both parties,” wrote MacGillis. "Maintenance and repairs are long overdue on thousands of roads and bridges dangerously near the end of their expected life spans."   read more

Not since the U.S. last sent men to the moon has NASA released a complete photo of the Earth taken from deep space. But on July 6 NASA published a photo of the planet, taken by the Deep Space Climate Observatory with the EPIC camera. It’s in orbit about 1 million miles out between the Earth and the sun. The image shows North and Central America and part of the Caribbean Sea. The last time NASA released such an image was the 1972 Apollo 17 mission that captured the iconic “blue marble” image.   read more

The results revealed that the media was actually underreporting Trump’s rhetorical outbursts. Among the GOP candidates, Trump represented 62% of the Google search traffic, “having been searched for more than six times as often as second-place Bush,” Silver wrote. Still, Trump is not considered a serious bet to win the GOP nomination. His chances are pegged at 4%, compared to Bush’s 41%. Three other candidates are also given a better chance than Trump: Rubio at 16%, Walker 14% and Rand Paul 6%.   read more

Chinese immigration has almost tripled, while Indian immigration has doubled. The shift is “remarkable” due to how rapidly it occurred, said the Migration Policy Institute. While Indian and Chinese migration has risen steadily, the rate of Mexican immigration has declined at a much more rapid pace. Yet “Latinos still make up the largest racial or ethnic minority group in the United States,” said ThinkProgress. However, Chinese immigrants constitute 65.4% of the foreign-born population.   read more

The probe was challenged by conservative and business organizations—the Wisconsin Club for Growth, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, and Citizens for a Strong America—which also spent money on others running for office, such as members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In fact, the four justices who voted to quash the investigation all received substantial contributions from the groups.   read more

The average hold time was 23 minutes. Last year, it was 14 minutes. Only a little more than a third of callers looking for help got through to a human, the lowest rate in a decade. The IRS has struggled to operate since Congress began cutting its budget five years ago. The agency has lost $1.2 billion in funding, about 17% of its budget, since 2010.   read more

“It is hard to believe that in 2015 the State of California is operating a facially discriminatory program that perpetuates the outdated stereotype that only women can be caregivers," said attorney Grunfeld. "Our clients meet the stringent criteria of this program except for their gender. The Governor and CDCR should stop defending their discriminatory law and let qualified men participate in the ACP. Defendants’ policies de-legitimize the role that men play in their families."   read more

For the first time in the U.S., a federal court has ruled that advances in DNA technology require that previously valueless forensic specimens must be viewed as newly discovered evidence, and therefore not subject to time limits established by law. This could lead to new trials for convicted individuals who have been claiming their innocence. The ruling came about in the case of a new trial sought by a man who, nine years ago, was convicted of attempted sexual abuse of a minor.   read more

The B61-12 nuclear bomb will have an adjustable yield and a tail section to allow the bomb to be guided to its target. Hans Kristensen, nuclear weapons expert at the nonpartisan Federation of American Scientists, said the bomb violates a 2010 Obama pledge not to produce nuclear weapons with new military capabilities. “We do not have a nuclear guided bomb in our arsenal today,” Kristensen said. “It is a new weapon.” He said the capability will make the bomb more useable in future conflicts.   read more

The exodus of instructors has been blamed on education spending cuts, including low teacher pay. Gov. Brownback himself has led a charge to cut school funding. The Republican-dominated legislature’s attempts to do away with tenure, undermine teachers’ unions and even pass a law that would have allowed teachers to be criminally prosecuted for presenting material deemed harmful to minors have also been cited as reasons.   read more

Stolen information on so many millions of Americans will allow the hackers to determine who works for U.S. intelligence agencies and where they are in the world, said Paul Rosenzweig. “Short of real-time intelligence of U.S. activities, this is the intelligence equivalent of the discovery of the nuclear bomb,” he said. The data breach “really suggests that we should take the entire government offline” and offer “complete amnesty to anyone who is approached by the Chinese and comes forward.”   read more

With all that cash, Right to Rise has been able to block out key spots for TV commercials and digital advertising. And since they had plenty of time before Bush declared, they were able to work with the former Florida governor to record interviews that will later be used in commercials. The upshot is that even though Right to Rise and the Bush campaign can no longer coordinate their efforts, the Super PAC can run on autopilot.   read more

Florida’s Republican-dominated legislature will still be in charge of the election maps, but they could come out giving Democrats a chance to win a few more congressional seats in the 2016 election. In Wisconsin, in 2012, the first year the new districts were used, Republicans captured 60 of 99 legislative races, even though a majority of the votes cast in the election were for Democrats.   read more

Roof was arrested in March in Columbia, South Carolina, on a narcotics charge. That normally would have prevented Roof from buying the gun the following month. However, Columbia is split between two counties and the county initially contacted by the FBI investigator through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System had no record of Roof’s arrest. The law says that retailers may release a gun if there is no response on the investigation within three days.   read more

The bill, McCain said, “would rebuild the wall between commercial and investment banking that was in place for over 60 years, restore confidence in the system and reduce risk for the American taxpayer.” Added Warren: “Despite the progress we’ve made since 2008, the biggest banks continue to threaten our economy. The biggest banks are collectively much larger than they were before the crisis, and they continue to engage in dangerous practices that could once again crash our economy.”   read more