Some are suspicious that Wheeler, a former telecommunications executive and Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association lobbyist, will not do his utmost to protect consumers as the new rules are fashioned. The answer will come May 15, when the proposed new rules will be released.   read more

This comes even though the United States is still the world’s richest country. However, increasing income inequality in the U.S. has caused median incomes to drop even as average incomes increase because of huge gains at the high end of the scale. Poor people in the United States fare even worse, as they are far behind the median incomes of those living in Canada and much of Europe.   read more

A small but expanding group of federal judges has thwarted efforts by law enforcement to have carte blanche to pry into the personal communications of suspects. These judges have made it clear that protecting constitutional rights is more important in some cases than helping police conduct broad searches into cell phone and email data. Facciola has characterized some law enforcement efforts to access entire contents of email accounts as “repugnant” to the U.S. Constitution.   read more

“You have people who say, ‘Ewww, I am drinking someone else’s toilet water,’” said Teresa Rose. “But...everyone downstream is already drinking someone else’s toilet water.” The plan “is a bit grotesque,” said Pastor Bob McCartney. “Nobody is excited about taking a leak and seeing it come back at you in the shower,” agreed George Berre.“ Yet converting sewage into drinking water may indeed be the wave of the future.   read more

Nashiri was held at several secret CIA prisons before being shipped to Guantánamo Bay, where he has been detained since 2006. His lawyers contend that he was tortured at the clandestine facilities, including being subjected to waterboarding and threats involving a gun and a power drill while CIA officials sought information from him about future terrorist plots. This information, if turned over to the military court, would not be released to the public, according to Pohl’s order.   read more

The Obama administration has been ordered by a panel of federal judges to release its legal justification for assassinating Americans suspected of terrorist ties. ACLU lawyer Jameel Jaffer called the decision “a resounding rejection of the government’s effort to use secrecy, and selective disclosure, as a means of manipulating public opinion about the targeted killing program.”   read more

The class-action lawsuit, with 64,613 plaintiffs, targets Google, Apple, Intel and Adobe for secretly agreeing not to poach each other’s engineers and to share salary information in an effort to control salaries. The collusion reportedly began in 2005, when Apple’s Steve Jobs approached Google’s top executive, Eric Schmidt, about working together to hold down salaries. After getting Google on board, Jobs “strong-armed” Adobe into joining the secret pact, according to court documents.   read more

According to statistics compiled by Mark Knoller of CBS News, Obama has attended 373 fundraisers during the 1,900+ days since he’s been in office, which averages to almost one every five days. An investigation last year by The Guardian showed that Obama had attended 30 fundraisers in the seven-month period between April and November, even though he is not personally up for reelection.   read more

In an average of the two years ending in 1994, there were 13.5 cases of domestic violence per 1,000 persons aged 12 and over. By the two years ending in 2012, the average had been cut to 5.0 cases per 1,000. The steepest drop in domestic violence occurred between 1995 and 2001, when the rate fell from 13.2 per thousand to 6.2 per thousand in just six years. The steepest decline came in the rate of partner violence.   read more

No larger than grains of sand, microbeads have become a popular addition to many facial cleaners, soaps and even toothpaste. But environmentalists found microbeads exacerbate water and soil pollution. The non-biodegradable ingredients can absorb toxins in lakes and waterways, creating deadly concentrations consumed by fish that mistake the beads for food.   read more

Millions of children in the U.S. attend schools located within a mile of an industrial facility housing hazardous chemicals, according to a new study. This total represents nearly 10% of all school-age children in the country. The number of schools operating this close to facilities with hazardous chemicals is nearly 10,000. “Minority and low-income kids bear the greatest risks, but no one is immune from this danger," said Katherine McFate, CEO of the Center for Effective Government.   read more

Attorney Jim Harrington, who is representing bin al Shibh, told the court that agents showed up at the home of his team’s defense security officer, whose identity was not revealed. The Miami Herald reported that the officer worked for SRA International, a government contractor. Harrington said the FBI questioned the officer about possible wrongdoing by defense attorneys and convinced him to sign an agreement that would have him feed information to the bureau.   read more

Are whistleblowers—whose anonymity is often their best protection against retribution—made safer by being forced to register as whistleblowers with the U.S. government? The Obama administration is demanding they step forward and sign up under the FBI's Insider Threat program. Senator Charles Grassley criticized the effort, saying it is an idea that “should be pretty alarming to all Americans. Sometimes confidentiality is the best protection a whistleblower has.”   read more

Rancher Cliven Bundy has refused since 1993 to pay the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) so his cattle could graze on public lands in Gold Butte, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. His refusal continued even after losing two court battles in 1998 and 2013, as Bundy kept running his herd on the lands managed by BLM without paying the fees required of all ranchers.   read more

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) misled the George W. Bush Administration and Congress about its use of so-called harsh interrogation techniques, or torture, according to the findings of a still-secret report that have been leaked. The report, which was prepared by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, shows that the CIA mischaracterized the efficacy of the interrogation techniques they used and it impeded White House and Congressional oversight of the interrogation program.   read more

Thanks to a one-line provision slipped into the 2008 Farm Bill, a 10-year statute of limitations was removed from old debts to the government. The Social Security Administration (SSA) is taking advantage of that, garnishing tax refunds, including from children of people whom the SSA claims were overpaid benefits in the distant past. Social Security officials say that if children benefitted even indirectly from an overpayment, they’re liable for the debt.   read more