For the first time in about 30 years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration had to withdraw from the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs because it could not afford the travel costs. Meanwhile, representatives from Europe and Asia attended the event. Pentagon officials grounded by air travel cuts have not been able to use video conferencing as a substitute due to lack of online security.   read more

Since the creation of the post in 1989, Americans’ attitudes towards marijuana have changed, with a majority in recent polls showing support for legalizing it. Dissolving the Office of National Drug Control Policy would also save the government money, considering its annual budget is around $300 million. Pro-legalization proponents were frustrated with Kerlikowske, a former police chief of Seattle, who refused to alter his tough stance on keeping marijuana illegal.   read more

Included with the units and pens are air conditioners to provide cool air for piglets that eventually will be slaughtered as part of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) agribusiness program. The Texas Civil Rights Project’s Prisoners’ Rights Program has documented fourteen cases in which prisoners died of heat stroke between 2007 and 2012.   read more

In some cases, landowners failed to read all the fine print of the contracts they signed that allow drillers to deduct expenses related to drilling or maintaining wells from the royalties owed. In other cases the drilling companies sell the oil and gas to their own subsidiaries at reduced value and then resell it at a higher price. The property owner’s royalty is based not of the second, more profitable sale, but on the first transaction.   read more

After a failed attempt to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day 2010 with a bomb hidden in underwear, Chertoff appeared on the major TV news shows and wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post advocating the use of full-body scanning systems at airports without disclosing that Rapiscan Systems—the leading maker of the machines—was a client of his firm. The Transportation Security Administration ordered 300 Rapiscan machines and Rapiscan made $118 million from the government between 2009 and 2010.   read more

Judge Merrick B. Garland, who is Chief of the D.C. Circuit, dissented, quoting a leading case from 1936 ruling that “courts will not issue the writ to do a useless thing, even though technically to uphold a legal right.” Garland added that, “Unfortunately, granting the writ in this case will indeed direct the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do ‘a useless thing,’” because there is not enough money left to complete the safety review.   read more

75% of panelists who propose changes in disease definitions and diagnostic criteria had been paid by drug companies either as consultants, advisers or speakers. Among those serving as chairs of these panels, 12 out of 14 were financially connected to the drug industry.   read more

One of the large corporations that the DOE contracts for work, Lockheed Martin, earned $2.6 billion for DOE-contracted projects last year. That is twice as much as all of DOE’s small business contracts combined ($1.3 billion).   read more

The snafus have forced the Fed to return more than 30 million hundred-dollar notes—the equivalent of $3 billion if legally in circulation—and to demand that BEP refund the Fed’s money. Meanwhile, “another thirty billion dollars’ worth of paper sits in limbo awaiting examination,” according to David Wolman of The New Yorker. The new deadline for BEP to get it right is October 8.   read more

The lone dissenter, Judge Andrew J. Kleinfeld, wrote: “They do not get one cent. They do not even get an injunction against Facebook doing exactly the same thing to them again.” He added: “This settlement perverts the class action into a device for depriving victims of remedies for wrongs, while enriching both the wrongdoers and the lawyers purporting to represent the class.”   read more

Banks are so willing to pony up sizeable contributions that House leaders over the past three decades have kept adding seats to the Financial Services Committee, expanding it from 44 members in 1980 to 61 members today. Both parties like to put newly elected members of Congress on the committee because they are considered more vulnerable in their reelection battles and need more campaign funds.   read more

A combination of economic, educational and cultural factors were cited by the Pew Research Center to explain the rising trend of young adults not living on their own. For one thing, young people are having a tougher time finding jobs. In 2012, 63% of 18- to 31-year-olds were employed, down from the 70% in 2007. Forty-five percent of unemployed Millennials were living with parents, versus 29% of those with jobs.   read more

Civil forfeitures were first set up to deny convicted drug dealers, embezzlers, racketeers and other offenders from keeping property obtained with tainted money. While this is still the case in many instances, other people not accused of committing a crime are also having their homes and other possessions taken away by law enforcement. In 2000, officials seized $500 million in forfeitures. By 2012, that amount rose to $4.2 billion, an eightfold increase.   read more

The civil complaint claims Bank of America (BofA) defrauded investors who purchased more than $850 million in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) contained in a particular bond (BOAMS 2008-A). The fraud occurred when BofA failed to tell investors that more than 70% of the mortgages backing the bond were bad, and that they came from mortgage brokers that weren't affiliated with the bank.   read more

The judge cited a friend-of-the-court submission from Senator Durbin about the true meaning of the law—along with a footnote to Strunk & White’s Elements of Style on how to use basic English—to castigate the board for its “blatant act of policymaking that runs counter to Congress’s will.”   read more

There had been speculation that Blythe Masters, one of JPMorgan’s top executives and global head of commodities, would be sanctioned for her role in the affair. But that didn’t happen, despite what the investigators originally termed her “false and misleading statements under oath.” Although Masters is considered a pioneer in the use of complex financial instruments called credit derivatives, she reportedly told investigators that she didn’t really understand how the scheme even worked.   read more