The now former senator from Oklahoma accused the $60 billion DHS of falling short of fulfilling its key objectives to protect the nation. “Based upon the available evidence, DHS is not successfully executing any of its five main missions,” Coburn wrote. “DHS’s main domestic counterterrorism programs—including its intelligence initiatives and homeland security grants—are yielding little value for the nation’s counterterrorism efforts."   read more

It’s not the first time this has happened. In fact, it’s becoming a regular occurrence in American politics. Republicans now hold 54 Senate seats, compared to 46 for Democrats. But the GOP candidates only received 46.6% of the vote over the last three elections. Republicans winning a majority of Senate seats while not winning a majority of votes is nothing new. This trend has been happening every 10 years: 2004, 1994 and 1984. It also occurred following the midterm elections of 1980 and 1982.   read more

During the week of December 22, arrests were down 66% and traffic and parking tickets and summons for minor offenses were down more than 90% from the same week in 2013. Instead of concern, many are grateful for the diminished police presence. Tickets and summons have been issued disproportionally to those in the working class, forcing them to bear much of the city’s revenue burden.   read more

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, spending by state and local governments rose 18.2% between 2007 and 2012. The increases in spending have resulted in teachers who lost jobs during the cutbacks getting some positions back, although there are still 300,000 fewer of them than before.   read more

If not for the federal government, contractor DynCorp International wouldn’t be in business. Virtually all of its revenue (96%) comes from government contracts. That includes the vast majority of the taxpayer dollars that the State Department has awarded to companies to help rebuild Afghanistan. Most of DynCorp’s contracts have been to train and equip the Afghan National Police and counternarcotics forces.   read more

The increases are a result of changes adopted in 20 states, either through legislative action by lawmakers or voter-approved initiatives that occurred in 2014 or in previous years. It’s the greatest number of states to enact such increases of any time in the history of the country, reported The Boston Globe. It will also be the first time that a majority of states will have a minimum wage that is above the federal rate of $7.25 an hour.   read more

Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said the kingdom will go to the mat to reaffirm its dominance—even if it means lowering the price of crude to $20 a barrel. That would be a huge drop, as it's held at $90 or more for years. “It is not in the interest of OPEC producers to cut their production,” he said. “High efficiency producing countries are the ones that deserve market share. … If the price falls, it falls . . . Others will be harmed greatly before we feel any pain.”   read more

“The documents show that the deadly missions were not just viewed as a last resort to prevent attacks,” stated Der Spiegel. The “war on terror” became intermingled with the “war on drugs,” said Reprieve's Jennifer Gibson. “This is both new and extremely legally troubling." It also raises "legal and moral questions that extend far beyond Afghanistan,” added Der Spiegel. “Can a democracy be allowed to kill its enemies in a targeted manner when the objective is not to prevent an imminent attack?”   read more

The National Security Agency (NSA) took full advantage of the holiday, issuing reports on 12 years of overreaches and mistakes by its employees at 1:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Because the released reports have been heavily censored, it is impossible to tell if any of the admissions by the NSA involved serious wrongdoing.   read more

The Obama administration sought to expand protections provided under the 1974 Fair Labor Standards Act (pdf) (FLSA), which included an exemption for home care workers who provide “care and fellowship” to their clients. Congress was unwilling to amend the FLSA to provide minimum wages to those workers, so the Labor Department attempted to do it by way of a regulation.   read more

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced the number of people killed in passenger vehicles dropped by 3% to 21,132. That total, according to the NHTSA, was the lowest on record going back to 1975. The data for last year also showed a 3.1% decline in overall highway deaths from 2012 and nearly a 25% drop since 2004.   read more

The U.S., which sells more military hardware by far than any other nation, signed the treaty in 2013, but it hasn’t been ratified by the Senate. Other arms producing nations that haven’t agreed to the treaty are China, Russia, India and Pakistan. The treaty regulates cross-border transfer of conventional weapons from small arms to tanks.   read more

Before Brinsley killed NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wen Jian Liu and committed suicide, he shot his former girlfriend, Shaneka Thompson. He reportedly entered Thompson’s Baltimore apartment, shot her in the stomach and then left for New York City. Thompson cried out for help, according to The Nation. “I can’t die like this. Please, please help me,” she said while knocking on a neighbor’s door. She is expected to survive her attack.   read more

Although the Iraq war has been over for a few years now, it still was the more costly of the two conflicts. Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn consumed $815 billion, or 51% of the total. As for Operation Enduring Freedom, which is still ongoing, the cost of American involvement in Afghanistan is now up to $686 billion. The human cost of the two wars for Americans has been: 4,491 deaths and 32,244 wounded in Iraq; and 2,356 deaths and 20,060 wounded in Afghanistan.   read more

From human rights organizations to the editorial boards of leading national newspapers, there have been numerous calls for the Obama administration to prosecute former officials in the CIA and the administration of George W. Bush for allowing and carrying out last decade’s controversial torture program against detainees. To many, nothing short of a war-crimes tribunal will suffice for the sake of bringing justice—and closure—to one of the ugliest episodes in modern U.S. political history.   read more

Thursday the Federal Reserve granted financial institutions extra time to divest themselves of private equity and hedge fund investment they’d been required to sell as part of the Volcker Rule, which prohibits banks from investing their own capital. The postponement is seen as the work of Fed general counsel Scott Alvarez, a holdover from Alan Greenspan’s tenure as Fed chair who has been trying to water down Dodd-Frank since it was passed.   read more