The “coordinated takedown” was the “largest in Strike Force history,” the Justice Department announced. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the doctors, patient recruiters, home health care providers, pharmacy owners, and others “billed for equipment that wasn’t provided, for care that wasn’t needed, and for services that weren’t rendered.” Charges include conspiracy to commit health care fraud, violations of the anti-kickback statutes, money laundering and aggravated identity theft.   read more

The threat of violence continues. On Thursday, 400 people were evacuated from the Allen Temple AME Church in Greenville, South Carolina, during a prayer vigil, due to a bomb threat, and the Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston was evacuated for the same reason on the same afternoon. On Friday, there was a bomb threat against Washington D.C.’s Metropolitan AME Church.   read more

A report from the Congressional Budget Office outlines the effects that an appeal would have. Fourteen million Americans would lose coverage through Medicaid and 18 million fewer would have insurance through the federal exchanges. That would be partly offset by 8 million more people who would be insured through their employers.   read more

Earthquakes associated with injection wells have “skyrocketed from a handful per year in the 1970s to more than 650 in 2014,” the university reported. Researchers found that “high-rate” injection wells were most often associated with quakes. These high-rate wells pump in excess of 300,000 barrels of wastewater into the ground per month. "We think the evidence is convincing that the earthquakes we are seeing near injection sites are induced by oil and gas activity," said researcher Weingarten.   read more

A report from Americans for Tax Fairness said Walmart had at least 78 offshore subsidiaries and branches to stash the assets where they’re not subject to U.S. corporate tax rates. The study, which used information provided by the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, said 90% of the havens were based in Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Bloomberg reported “overseas operations have helped the company cut more than $3.5 billion off its income tax bills in the past six years.”   read more

“We decided this week it was no longer an effective use of our resources to continue in a process where companies wouldn’t even agree to the most modest measures to protect privacy,” wrote EFF’s Jennifer Lynch. Facebook recently released its Moments mobile photo app, which will tag the faces of those in the photos. In Britain, all the attendees at the Download music festival last weekend were subject to being captured by facial recognition technology.   read more

The 424 immigrants included convicted rapists, child molesters, and kidnappers. ICE failed to track the criminals after releasing them, or to ensure that they registered as sex offenders. Some re-offend and are jailed, including at least one man who tortured his children. Others get into homeless shelters. “The public ought to be outraged,” said Homeless Trust's Ronald Book. “I don’t know that ICE intentionally set us up, but it left us vulnerable, which is what we want to try to avoid.”   read more

Unlike American cops, most British police patrol their streets armed with no more than batons and pepper spray. The elite police who do carry guns almost never use them. In Britain, police view themselves as working for the public, not the state. “There’s a huge emphasis on human rights...on proportionality...on considering every other option," said police chief Fahy. British police "fear getting it wrong...cops in the U.S. fear getting shot." Those are different worlds, said Sir O'Connor.   read more

It’s the oldest trick in the book—when Dad tells you no, ask Mom if you can do it. Now President Barack Obama is playing that game with the surveillance of Americans’ phone records. The Obama administration, on the same day the USA Freedom Act became law on June 2, went to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA court) with a request (pdf) to continue sweeping up phone records during a six-month “transition” period before the Freedom Act provisions take effect.   read more

The Walmart manuals require that drivers must not drive within 10 hours of a previous stint. The compensation for that mandatory layover is $42, or $4.20 an hour. That’s considerably less than minimum wage. Walmart argued that the workers weren’t working during those 10 hours, but the judge cited California code that defined hours worked as “the time during which an employee is subject to the control of an employer.   read more

CBP officer Jose Rafael Ducos Bello reported fraud and waste at his agency. He told the committee that he was subjected to so much retaliation that it affected his son, who tried to commit suicide. Michael Keegan, a former Social Security associate commissioner, said he was isolated from other workers and “confined to an empty office” after saying agency officials misled Congress about a building project. Whistleblower is “a term that has become radioactive and derogatory,” said Col. Amerine.   read more

The survey found 68% of European respondents said they think the U.S. is likely to come to an ally’s defense. There are 56% of Americans who agree. However, "Germans, French and Italians have little inclination to come to a NATO ally’s defense,” said Pew's Bruce Stokes, “and if the next military conflict in the region is hybrid warfare, and there is some debate who these Russian-speaking fighters are, such attitudes will only further inhibit NATO’s response.”   read more

The Justice Dept. is going after foreign terrorists and criminals even though they have little or no connection with the U.S. This may continue as long as Loretta Lynch is U.S. Attorney General. "No federal prosecutor was more aggressive about expanding her office’s global reach than Ms. Lynch when she was the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn,” the Times wrote. The U.S. has turned itself into “the jailer, the military front and now the prosecutor” of global crimes, said CNS's Karen Greenberg.   read more

A Reuters investigation has shown that Peabody does not have the financial resources to self-bond. That means if the world’s largest private coal company goes belly up, the federal government would have to step in and help pay to clean up Peabody’s mines, which would cost about $1.38 billion. Peabody has not filed for bankruptcy, but posted losses of $700 million last year. This week it announced it will soon let go of 250 employees and shut down two of its operations in Indiana and Wyoming.   read more

The North Carolina legislature has overridden a veto of an "ag-gag" law that will allow businesses to sue employees who report illegal or unethical corporate behavior. Republican Governor Pat McCrory vetoed the bill that provided for businesses to pursue civil charges against employees who photograph, shoot video or steal data or documents, even if the intent is to expose wrongdoing. McCrory said the legislation would discourage employees who witness illegal activity from reporting it.   read more

The Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) agreement being negotiated by the Obama administration with representatives from 23 other nations, mostly in Europe and South America, but also including Japan, South Korea, Australia and Israel, has provisions that could allow personal data to be stored in other countries. Unlike the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which deals mostly with goods, TiSA is intended to regulate services, such as the Internet. This concerns privacy advocates.   read more