Trump said, “We need people to be afraid. Right now many Americans are surprised when protestors are killed, but they’ll get used to it.” Trump did add one suggestion: “Try not to kill white people. That gets too much attention. Stick to protestors of other colors.”   read more

These firms use visas to relocate their employees, many from India, to the U.S., where they are taking jobs Americans could do. The Times reported federal law requires global companies using H-1B workers to sign a declaration saying they will not displace Americans. “But there is a loophole: An exemption cancels that requirement if employers pay H-1B workers at least $60,000 a year — significantly less than an experienced technology worker’s salary in many parts of the country,” said the Times.   read more

Only 90 of the 5,400 children who have applied to escape street gangs, extortion and rape have been interviewed by the Department of Homeland Security. Some have been approved, but “lengthy procedures for getting airplane tickets and processing paperwork have delayed” their admittance into the U.S., the Times reported. “Really, it’s pathetic that no child has come through this program,” said Lavinia Limón, president and CEO of the nonprofit U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.   read more

Dana Perls, food and technology policy campaigner at Friends of the Earth U.S., warned the upcoming trial was unnecessary and possibly dangerous. Jaydee Hanson, senior policy analyst at Center for Food Safety, said: “Once these GE moths are out in the wild, there is no turning back. Every possible scenario needs to be accounted for. Until federal agencies have implemented rigorous regulations around GE insects, this GE moth trial should be halted.”   read more

The FCC has rejected a petition from a consumer group to require online companies to honor do-not-track requests from consumers. Consumer Watchdog petitioned the FCC to start developing a new regulation mandating ‘edge providers’ such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, Pandora, Netflix, and LinkedIn to honor do-not-track requests from consumers. Users can set their browser preferences to request that their online movements aren’t tracked, but few companies comply.   read more

Judge Leon was not dissuaded by the coming change in the NSA program. “Although this court appreciates the zealousness with which the government seeks to protect the citizens of our nation, that same government bears just as great a responsibility to protect the individual liberties of those very citizens," he wrote. “This court simply cannot, and will not, allow the government to trump the Constitution merely because it suits the exigencies of the moment."   read more

Contractor Kingsley discovered the offshoring and warned the Russian-made software made it possible for the Pentagon’s communications systems to be infected with viruses. He said Netcracker used the Russians because they worked for a third of the cost of U.S. programmers. "Numerous viruses were loaded onto the DISA network as a result of code written by the Russian programmers and installed...in the DISA secure system,” said Kingsley.   read more

“You’re going on 11 years into this project, they only have one form, and we’re still a paper-based agency,’’said Kenneth Palinkas, former president of the union that represents USCIS employees. “It’s a huge albatross around our necks.’’ USCIS may have to spend another $2 billion to finish the project and digitize the other 94 forms used by immigrants who come to the U.S. The new projected completion date is 2019.   read more

The suit charges use of Zofran for morning sickness amounts to “experimenting with the lives of unsuspecting mothers-to-be and their babies.” It says GSK was warned as of 1999 by the FDA to “immediately cease distribution” of ads that “promote Zofran in a manner that is false or misleading because it lacks fair balance.” Instead, says the suit, GSK urged its staff to emphasize to providers "not only the benefits of Zofran but also the financial benefits to the providers by prescribing Zofran."   read more

Republicans in Congress have worked to cut funding for the IRS, forcing the agency to lay off thousands of workers, including those who review income tax returns. The cuts have resulted in the audit rate for individual tax returns dipping to 0.84% for fiscal year 2015. That’s the lowest rate since 2004. The IRS has lost 15,000 workers since 2010, but at the same time, the number of income tax returns filed by individuals went up 3%, to 146 million.   read more

President Obama issued several executive orders beginning in 2011 instructing agencies to perform retrospective analyses of rules “that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome, and to modify, streamline, expand, or repeal them" as needed. But researchers discovered few agencies had plans to measure the effectiveness of the regulations, which ranged from enhanced tank car standards for high hazard flammable trains to minimum wages for federal contractors.   read more

Critics accused the GEBN of trying to reshape public opinion about soft drinks to protect Coca-Cola’s bottom-line. The outcry prompted the medical school’s leadership to return the money, saying “the funding source has distracted attention from its worthwhile goal.” Professor Marion Nestle called the network “a front group” for Coca-Cola intended to promote the message that obesity is primarily caused by a lack of exercise, not by overconsumption of junk food.   read more

“By making next year’s election a national holiday, President Obama would signal a strong national commitment to voting and help serve as a counter-balance to the 2013 Supreme Court decision that gutted the historic Voting Rights Act,” the groups said. “Since this decision, nearly every state has introduced bills to make voting harder...through discriminatory voter ID bills or drastic cuts to early voting days, same-day registration, and other suppressive measures.”   read more

The mistakes involved “beneficiaries who had returned to work and had earnings above program limits,” the GAO reported. Auditors also noted the agency’s “process for handling work reports by beneficiaries has internal control and other weaknesses that increase the risk of overpayments, even when DI beneficiaries follow program rules and report work and earnings.”   read more

In Mexico, President Peña’s presidential campaign used neuropolitical techniques to gauge voters’ brain waves, skin arousal, and heart rate. One way the new methods are applied is by placing cameras in digital billboards and recording people's facial reactions to political messages. Use of neuropolitics could increase during the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Hillary Clinton’s campaign already hired a neuromarketing firm to help it improve its targeting and messages.   read more

Defense officials have denied SIGAR easy access to documents, which is unusual and possibly illegal given the inspector general’s mandate to investigate Pentagon spending in Afghanistan. “Frankly, I find it both shocking and incredible that DOD asserts that it no longer has any knowledge about TFBSO, an $800 million program that reported directly to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and only shut down a little over six months ago,” Sopko wrote to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.   read more

No sooner was the plan finalized than officials—mostly Republicans—in 26 states sued to block it. “America’s history of political conflict over climate change and the legal challenges to the Clean Power Plan might suggest that the nation is divided over regulating carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants,” said Yale's Anthony Leiserowitz. “This study finds the opposite: A large majority of Americans in almost every state supports setting strict emission limits on coal-fired power plants.”   read more