According to aides who were present when Trump discussed the issue, but who choose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, Trump said he was sick of Vance and wanted to fire him. “I wanted him to be my attack dog,” said Trump, “but he appears foolish on television. He dropped the college football trophy. He met with Pope Francis and the next day the pope died. Vance is toxic, and I don’t want him to come near me. He just doesn’t look as good on television as I thought he would.”   read more

“I have nothing to say about that right now,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. But University of Washington women’s soccer coach Amy Griffin has identified more than 60 soccer players, particularly goalies, who played on crumb rubber turf and have been diagnosed with various forms of cancer. The Washington State Department of Health is now conducting its own study of the playing fields.The EPA in 2008 declared the crumb rubber fields to be safe.   read more

The states with the highest death rates also have higher speed limits. All have top speed limits of at least 70 mph and some, like Montana, have top limits of 80 mph. For a time in the 1990s, Montana had no top speed limit, merely requiring motorists to drive in a “reasonable and prudent manner.” The researchers also found that states with poorer and less-educated populations had higher road death rates than those having populations with higher incomes and more education.   read more

While suicides were up in big cities by 7%, rural counties had a 20% increase. Isolation, lower incomes, health and family problems all contribute to the increased suicide rate in rural areas. “Rather than say, ‘I need help,’ they keep working and they get overwhelmed. They can start to think they are a burden on their family and lose hope,” said Selby-Nelson. Those in rural areas have easier access to the most popular suicide method—firearms. Fifty-one percent of rural households own a gun.   read more

Cobert took over when Director Katherine Archuleta quit under fire because of two massive data breaches involving 22 million people, including federal employees and those on whom background checks had been done. (Cobert was one of those whose personal data was stolen.) In 2013 as OMB's deputy director, she urged changes in federal hiring practices, including considering the hiring of younger employees for shorter terms and putting hiring in the hands of the line departments.   read more

Ebert-Gray was brought home in 2009 to serve as Director of the Office of Overseas Employment. There, she coordinated such things as the hiring of local staff, setting pay scales within the prevailing pay structure for that location. Since 2011, she has been a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Administration. Ebert-Gray has been working in logistics management, particularly the handover of facilities in Iraq from the Department of Defense to the State Department.   read more

“The never-ending cases of corporate wrongdoing, seen most recently in the Volkswagen emissions scandal, make it essential for policymakers, advocates, journalists, and the general public to have access to systematic information across agencies,” said Philip Mattera. BP paid the largest penalty, totaling $25.4 billion, for the Deepwater Horizon disaster that polluted large parts of the Gulf coast. Toyota had a unique standing as it also received more than $1 billion in government subsidies.   read more

There seems to be a disconnect between Americans’ perception of crime rates and the actual amount of crime in the United States. A new Gallup poll showed 70% of respondents believe crime has gone up since last year, when 63% said crime had risen from 2013 levels. But government data has shown a downward trend in crime rates from the mid-1990s to the current decade. Americans’ perceptions of crime “are not always on par with reality," said Gallup's Justin McCarthy.   read more

Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas released 1,500 patients several years ago and put them on buses bound for other states. Patients were given names of homeless shelters or advised to dial 911 when they reached their destinations in California. San Francisco said it spent $500,000 to service the needs of 24 people who ended up there and the city filed a class action suit against Nevada.   read more

Researchers looked at the effects of people staying indoors and exposed to indoor pollution. Two dozen participants spent six eight-hour workdays in an environmentally controlled office space for the study. Some days they were exposed to conventional office building environments, which tend to have high concentrations of VOCs. Other days they remained in green office buildings with low VOC concentrations. “The results were striking,” wrote Reynard Loki.   read more

The record was 18,967 days on Oct. 28, which stretched back to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963. The previous mark was 18,966 days from George Washington’s inauguration on April 30, 1789 to William Henry Harrison’s death by pneumonia on April 4, 1841. Eight presidents died in office during a span of 122 years, which included three by assassination—Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley— during one 36-year stretch.   read more

“There are few things in this job that literally make my jaw drop,” said Sen. McCaskill. “But of all the examples of wasteful projects in Iraq and Afghanistan that the Pentagon began...this genuinely shocked me." A similar natural gas station was built in Pakistan for only $500,000. But this one ballooned from $3 million to $43 million. Are there any cars there running on natural gas? Not really, according to Sopko, who investigated the project despite efforts by the Pentagon to thwart him.   read more

Scientist Lundgren made the accusation as part of his whistleblower case. He said his bosses at USDA began to “impede or deter his research and resultant publications” more than a year ago. He also has said the agency tried to keep him from speaking about his findings for political reasons and interfered with his ability to review the research of other scientists. Lundgren said he was suspended by the agency, harassed and put through "utter hell."   read more

The Bureau never bothered to verify Davis’ stated intentions for the horses or follow up on where the horses were going. The IG also found that the Bureau continued to sell horses to Davis for at least three years—spending $140,000 on their delivery—even after receiving information alleging that Davis was sending the animals out of the country to be killed. The inspector general’s office referred Davis’ case for prosecution, but federal and state officials declined to take action.   read more

“Wow,” said sociology professor Samuel Preston. “This is a vivid indication that something is awry in these American households.” Said study co-author Deaton: “Half a million people are dead who should not be dead. About 40 times the Ebola stats. You’re getting up there with HIV-AIDS.” The cause of the higher death rates for this cohort may have something to do with being unhappy, according to data collected by two Princeton economists.   read more

A quarter of the 825 committees were based in the Department of Health and Human Services, with many of them connected with the National Institutes of Health. In total, the committees leaned on the expertise of more than 68,000 individuals. Some of these members were paid for their time, which cost $33 million. Another $43 million was allocated for their travel and per diems.   read more

The investigation revealed Northrup contributed $4.6 million to the campaigns of 224 lawmakers since 2010, demonstrating a long-range lobbying strategy devised to win the contract. In all, the defense contractor spent $85.4 million to lobby Congress, the Pentagon and other agencies on the bomber program as well as other military spending issues. It also hired more than 100 lobbyists and others, including five former members of Congress, to work specifically on defense issues.   read more