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

It's said detention causes permanent harm to the physical and mental health of young children. Compounding the suffering is a policy that breaks up the families once they are rounded up. The detention itself, and the separating of parents from their children and each other, has been acknowledged as a tool employed by the U.S. government to deter others from entering the country illegally in the future. It is a practice that judges in immigration legal cases have demanded be stopped.   read more

Johnson has said the focus should be on those who pose a “demonstrable risk to national security” or who have been “convicted of specifically enumerated crimes.” Yet the TRAC report said that of the 7,993 people detained in April, two-thirds of them had not been convicted of a crime. The manpower and expense of pursuing undocumented immigrants as a means of crime prevention may actually be misplaced. Studies have shown that, in fact, immigrants are associated with lower, not higher, crime rates.   read more

These changes would include making buildings more efficient, investing in public transportation, deploying high-efficiency lighting and installing solar panels. “There is now increasing evidence that emissions can decrease while economies continue to grow,” said researcher Schultz. “Becoming more sustainable and putting the world — specifically cities — on a low carbon trajectory is actually feasible and good economics.” The $17 trillion savings could be more if indirect benefits are considered.   read more

The Justice Deptartment sought text messages sent between individuals suspected of illegal gun and drug activity. They were sent using Apple’s iMessage system. Apple said it couldn’t comply with the request as the iMessage system is encrypted. “The conflicts with Apple and Microsoft reflect heightened corporate resistance, in the post-Edward J. Snowden era, by American technology companies intent on demonstrating that they are trying to protect customer information,” wrote the Times.   read more

“The most radical difference,” Scott Henson wrote, involved a case “where a one-in-a-billion probability was lowered to around one-in-fifty.” The difference “stemmed not from the data entry errors but because … the FBI had changed its methodology for calculating probabilities in mixed DNA samples and moved to a new method which they considered more accurate.” The change could mean that people convicted with mixed DNA evidence might have cause for a new trial.   read more

The AEC found NUMEC lost 185 pounds of uranium due to inefficiencies in the refinement process. The FBI looked into the missing uranium but, like the AEC, closed its investigation after meeting with NUMEC director Zalman Shapiro but without consulting the CIA, “even though the agencies knew the CIA was interested in him,” Ryan wrote. He also reported that two CIA employees who worked during the height of the investigations have said diversion of uranium occurred.   read more

One case involved a 1996 Toyota Camry driven by Kuoa Fong Lee, whose 2007 accident killed three people. Lee was sentenced to eight years in prison. She had served two years when her conviction of vehicular homicide was tossed out after Lee’s lawyers argued the car suddenly accelerated and Lee couldn’t stop it. “The cases are just the latest example of the double standard that prevails between street and white collar crime,” said author Rena Steinzor.   read more

Researchers at Chapman University’s Food Science Program gathered 48 meat samples from local supermarkets and online specialty meat distributors and tested the DNA contained in them. The results showed 10 of the 48 samples were mislabeled—and that nine of the 10 mislabeled samples contained additional species. Two of the 10 included horse meat, which is illegal to sell in the U.S. for consumption.   read more

The American Medical Association (AMA) said in a study released this week that plans by Anthem to acquire Cigna and Aetna to buy Humana will harm patients across the country. The AMA argues too many insurance markets are already dominated by a few companies, and allowing these mergers will only further concentrate insurance options.   read more

Researchers from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and from European institutions found that perfluorinated alkylates (PFAS) are sometimes fed to newborns through mother’s milk. PFAS are a class of industrial chemicals and cancerous toxins used to repel water, grease and stains in sleeping bags, pizza boxes, cookware, waterproof clothing and other common household products.   read more

The home of a Palestinian family was firebombed, killing an 18-month-old child, Ali Dawabsheh, who was burned to death. His mother died Sunday of her burns. Their home was sprayed with graffiti reading “revenge” in Hebrew and featured a Star of David. Although not so far charged with the fire that killed the Dawabshehs, four youths--three with U.S. connections--believed to be connected to settler terrorism have been incarcerated by Israeli officials.   read more

The American College of Physicians, which represents doctors of internal medicine and related fields, has come out against the mass deportation of the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States proposed by Donald Trump and other members of the GOP, saying such a drastic move could adversely affect millions of individuals and endanger public health.   read more

President Barack Obama has used his executive powers to force federal contractors to provide seven days of paid sick leave to employees. The new rules, which won’t go into effect until 2017, demand that companies doing business with the U.S. government give their workers (both full-time and part-time) an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked for a total of up to seven days in a year.   read more

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) says net productivity grew 72.2% between 1973 and 2014. During that same period, hourly compensation of the vast majority of American workers increased only 8.7%, or 0.20% annually. When wages did go up, it mostly happened from 1995 to 2002. EPI also said only 15% of productivity growth between 1973 and 2014 translated into higher hourly wages and benefits for the typical American worker.   read more

Tribal leaders and others have voiced objections to Pope Francis’ announcement in January to make Serra a saint. Protests have been staged all across California and more are expected throughout the year. Serra’s drive to “civilize” native peoples while founding California's missions resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the eradication of their culture,   read more

The Guardian and the Associated Press say they uncovered emails from lobbyists representing egg producers that targeted the sales of Hampton Creek, which produces a mayonnaise that contains no eggs. The egg replacement company was seen as a threat to the $5.5 billion-a-year egg industry, prompting the American Egg Board (AEB) to launch a campaign to keep Hampton Creek from becoming successful.   read more