The remains of thousands of American soldiers dating as far back as World War II still have not been brought home, despite the Department of Defense spending millions every year to locate and return these remains to their families. Outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel promised to implement reforms to erase the backlog of “unknowns,” buried around the world, believed to be about 9,400 according to ProPublica. Some of the missing fought in Vietnam, the Korean War, and World War II.   read more

Germany’s foreign intelligence agency has been using its sophisticated electronic systems to collect 220 million bits of metadata a day from satellites and Internet sources. Once it crosses the Atlantic, the NSA and CIA use it for their own spying and anti-terrorism activities. Some of the metadata may be utilized by American operatives to assassinate individuals, Zeit Online says, based on what former NSA and CIA chief Michael Hayden said last year: “We kill people based on metadata.”   read more

The IRS uses civil forfeiture to seize millions of dollars from Americans who haven’t been charged with a crime. A new report states that the IRS seized more than $242 million from 2,500 individuals and businesses from 2005 to 2012. The agency was able to do it because of “lax civil forfeiture standards” that allows them to “seize first and ask questions later.” As a result, people have had their bank accounts drained and are then forced into a legal battle to reclaim their money.   read more

The 2016 plan includes $8.85 billion for replacing aging warheads with new ones, which represents an 8% bump over the current spending. But that's just the tip of what Obama has called for to retool the nuclear stockpile of weapons and delivery vehicles. The president has proposed spending $355 billion by 2024 on this endeavor. But one watchdog group wrote: "It’s time for...real downsizing and consolidation to occur, and for the security of the nuclear weapons complex to come first.”   read more

Judge Rakoff has frequently criticized federal prosecutors for not being tougher on Wall Street defendants in the wake of last decade’s financial crisis. This time, however, the 71-year-old judge was miffed that the Justice Department (DOJ) said the commission was not permitted to recommend that case evidence be shared with criminal defendants. Accusing the DOJ of valuing “strategic advantage [for prosecutors] over a search for the truth,” Rakoff resigned to draw attention to the DOJ decision.   read more

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) collects a lot of crime data from cities, counties and states, but does not ask law enforcement who they are killing and why. While governments get ready to possibly gather that information, the website Killed by Police is attempting to fill the gap by crowdsourcing the question through Facebook.   read more

E-cigarettes, which vaporize liquids containing nicotine, have been marketed as a less harmful way of smoking and a way to help kick the old-school tobacco habit. The report acknowledged that vaping may, indeed, be safer than cigarettes, but that doesn’t mean it is safe. “Exposure to nicotine during adolescence can harm brain development,” it says, while maintaining there is “no scientific evidence that e-cigarettes help smokers successfully quit traditional cigarettes.”   read more

Despite the mandate from the Affordable Care Act that prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against patients with preexisting conditions, many of them are getting around the restriction by charging HIV/AIDS patients much higher rates for their drugs, which causes them to switch to other providers.   read more

"This program is a major DEA initiative that has the potential to track our movements around the country,” wrote ACLU's Bennett Stein. “The federal government is uniquely positioned to create a centralized repository of all drivers’ movements across the country — and the DEA seems to be moving toward doing just that. If license plate readers continue to proliferate without restriction...the agency will soon possess a detailed and invasive depiction of our lives.”   read more

Posecutors argued Sterling was the source who helped James Risen discuss a CIA operation in his book “State of War.” “The Sterling case – especially in light of Obama’s complicity in the cover-up of torture during the Bush administration,” Dan Froomkin wrote, “sends a clear message to people in government service: You won’t get in trouble as long as you do what you’re told (even torture people). But if you tell [a reporter] something we want kept secret, we will spare no effort to destroy you.”   read more

Environmentalists contend the coast could suffer the same fate as the Gulf states after the 2010 BP disaster that fouled coastal waters with millions of barrels of oil. “Opening Atlantic waters to offshore drilling would take us in exactly the wrong direction,” said Bob Deans. Democratic senators from East Coast states blasted the move. “All of the risk is put on the backs of our shore communities, and all of the reward goes to Big Oil,” said Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey.   read more

The U.S. signed the treaty in 1995. However, President Clinton never submitted it to the Senate for approval. George W. Bush also did not ask the Senate to ratify it. Nor has President Barack Obama, who during his 2008 campaign said, “It is embarrassing that the U.S. is in the company of Somalia, a lawless land. If I become president, I will review this and other human rights treaties.” Supporters say it’s unlikely the U.S. will ratify it soon, with Republicans now in charge of the Senate.   read more

The 20-week limits have a disproportionate impact on the poor, who often don’t seek medical attention for their pregnancies until they’re farther along, and then have more trouble scraping up the money for an abortion if that’s what they decide to do. Other women, particularly younger ones with irregular menstrual cycles, sometimes don’t realize they’re pregnant until farther down the line. In addition, there are few exceptions in the laws for cases of fetal abnormalities.   read more

The infection count changes daily, hitting 85 nationwide Saturday night. The majority of the cases have been linked to Disneyland. More than 150 schools in Los Angeles County have exemption rates of 8% or higher for at least one of the five vaccines recommended for children, according to a study by the Times. All of them are in areas with incomes averaging $94,500, 60% higher than the county median.   read more

The future of cyber warfare will mean paralyzing “computer networks and, by doing so, potentially all the infrastructure they control, including power and water supplies, factories, airports or the flow of money,” Spiegel reported. The NSA is taking the lead within the U.S. military, putting it on the potential frontlines of future conflicts. NSA director Admiral Michael Roger oversees an “army” of 40,000 specialists versed in digital spying and “destructive network attacks.”   read more

The research has produced results that sickened veterinarians working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the complex. Pigs wind up having offspring that are born frail, and wind up being crushed accidentally by their mother. Surgery and breeding techniques have forced cows to bear twins and triplets, instead of just one calf. The calves “often emerge weakened or deformed, dying in such numbers that even meat producers have been repulsed,” said the Times.   read more