A court ruling that legalizes same-sex marriages would allow GOP candidates to publicly decry the decision, giving their conservative supporters what they want to hear. But it would also allow them to concentrate on other issues instead of continually defining themselves as socially intolerant leaders whose views are unacceptable to millennials, the next generation of voters. If they can’t change this perception, the consequences to them could be even worse in the years ahead.   read more

If all of the permafrost becomes exposed, it could release more than 10 times the amount of carbon than has been discharged into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution. The carbon deposit in the Arctic is so great it would represent two and a half times more carbon than already exists in the atmosphere today. This could amplify climate warming, which would cause more permafrost to thaw and release more carbon, and so on.   read more

Losing control of the U.S. Senate in the last election wasn’t all bad for President Obama. With Republicans in charge, the Senate stands a better chance of embracing what might be Obama’s last great policy goal: the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Many Democrats are strongly opposed to the TPP, calling it a corporate bill of rights that will undermine U.S. sovereignty and do little to help average Americans. Fortunately for Obama, Democrats are in the minority in both houses of Congress.   read more

Because FBI agents and other law enforcement officers were kept in the dark about the source for some data, it couldn’t be used in prosecutions. The FBI in 2004 examined whether Stellarwind data made a “significant contribution” to identifying a terrorist, deporting a terrorism suspect, or developing a confidential informant about terrorists. Only 1.2% of the tips panned out, the review showed. In 2006, the Bureau looked at the leads produced from 2004 until then. None proved useful.   read more

There were only 11 major work stoppages—involving more than 1,000 workers—in 2014, equaling the second lowest total since the bureau began recording such information in 1947. There were also 11 in in 2010 and only five in 2009. That compares to 470 such strikes in 1952. In 2014, only 34,000 U.S. workers took part in work stoppages. The only year with fewer numbers was the recession year of 2009 when only 13,000 workers went on strike.   read more

President Barack Obama indicated two years ago that his administration would no longer employ “signature” drone strikes. A signature strike is one in which subjects are targeted based on patterns of behavior rather than intelligence about who they are. But the January attack in which two hostages, including one American, were killed shows the CIA has continued to employ the tactic.   read more

The DEA’s top official, Michele Leonhart, resigned this week, presumably after it came out that many of her agents partied with prostitutes hired by drug cartels. But there is really much more to the story. “She’s been at the agency for 35 years, and her tenure since taking over in 2007 has been marked by a series of abuses, failures and missteps,” wrote David Graham at The Atlantic. "It's not that the outrage in this case is misplaced—it's that it's a day late and a trillion dollars short.”   read more

An international agreement to make it easier to enforce child support orders throughout the world is in danger of not being ratified in the U.S. because of nine conservative lawmakers in Idaho. Republican Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll led the opposition to the measure, testifying that it would subject Idaho to Sharia law. Nuxoll previously has boycotted a Hindu prayer in the Idaho senate, saying that Hindus worship false gods, and compared a proposed state health insurance exchange to the Holocaust.   read more

The problem goes back to the 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which led to the FDA being given only minor instruction for regulating the millions of cosmetics sold each year. The new Senate bill would change that. The proposal would require companies to report “serious” adverse health effects from consumers, such as reactions to products that result in death, disfigurement or hospitalization, within 15 business days. Non-serious events would have to be detailed in an annual report.   read more

“The American radical right is again large and dangerous, comprising close to 1,700 groups and hundreds of thousands of individuals,” wrote Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok. “Terrorism has risen again to the levels of the 1990s, with many afraid that the next attack on the scale of Oklahoma City could come at any time. And radical ideas have permeated much of our increasingly polarized political process, distorting our thinking and deflecting efforts to make ours a better country.”   read more

“If F-35 aircraft are employed at night for combat, pilots will have no night vision capability available due to the restriction on using the current night vision camera,” Michael Gilmore, director of operational test and evaluation at the Defense Department, said in written testimony. In contrast, the 1970s-era A-10 Thunderbolt, known as the Warthog, can remain over a battlefield for up to 90 minutes and augment its four air-to-ground missiles with fire from a cannon in its nose.   read more

When Hurricane Ivan moved through the Gulf in September 2004, it caused a landslide that buried wells owned by Taylor Energy Co. Ever since then, those wells have been steadily sending a ribbon of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. While Taylor has claimed the leak has released as little as 4 gallons of crude a day into the Gulf, and the Coast Guard has spotted sheens averaging 84 gallons a day, some estimates of the total leak are far larger, running as high as 900 gallons a day.   read more

Police are able “to stop and search people immediately based on nothing more than a gut reaction to the way someone looks or acts," said Salon. “Grand Rapids police are riding roughshod over the Bill of Rights by using these letters as a blank check to arrest anyone they don’t believe ‘belongs’ in a neighborhood. Any one of us who pulls into a gas station in Grand Rapids to check a map or make a phone call could be arrested under the GRPD’s illegal policy," said the ACLU.   read more

As promised, Republicans used their new majority power in the U.S. Senate during the start of the year to focus on energy as well as environmental legislation. What do they have to show for it? Not a single law signed by President Barack Obama. By the end of its first 100 days, the Senate had voted 59 times on energy/environmental bills. Of the Senate’s votes, 44% were on Keystone, plus efforts to block action to reduce carbon pollution and proposals to sell America’s public lands.   read more

Dr. Christian Head testified about efforts to retaliate against him. “Isolate. Then defame. Moving me to a storage bin...they are sending a message. They are trying to suppress [whistleblowers’] willingness to try to make a better life for these veterans.” Head said the locks to his office were changed, that he was relocated to a “tiny, dirty...closet-sized office” and nearly kept away from one of his patients. Other VA whistleblowers have committed suicide due to the harassment they endured.   read more

Soltan was working as a journalist translator covering the protests and was shot in the arm during a 2013 demonstration. For the past year, he has been on a hunger strike to protest his arrest and detention. Thousands of Egyptians are in prison for opposing the military-backed government, which has been accused of vast human rights abuses. The verdict comes in the wake of Obama releasing hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid for Egypt despite the lack of democratic reforms.   read more