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

A Nebraska school district is asking its teachers to sign a loyalty oath created during the McCarthy Red Scare era that was declared unconstitutional more than 50 years ago. Nebraska Education Commissioner Matt Blomstedt, spurred by requests from a right-wing Lincoln salesman, wrote a letter to the state’s school districts reminding them of the oath, and another law that requires school districts to create an “Americanism” committee.   read more

Up to 100,000 young people, even those charged with non-violent offenses, walk into courtrooms handcuffed or in leg irons, or both. “Children as young as 9 have been shackled, as have children who have been abused by their parents,” said Christian Science Monitor. Critics say use of the restraints is contrary to the rehabilitative purpose of juvenile court, and can hurt, humiliate and traumatize children. Once sent to prison, they can be subject to another form of abuse--solitary confinement.   read more

Judge Rogers ordered Bundy to copy Proverbs 26:26: “If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it.” Rogers also required Bundy to marry Jaynes within 30 days as a condition of his probation. Otherwise, the deal was off, and Bundy would spend 15 days behind bars. Bundy chose probation and its conditions because he was afraid he’d lose his job if he missed work. An ethics complaint was filed against the judge accusing him of illegal conduct for which “he should face serious consequences.”   read more

The Oregon appeals court heard Lang’s case, and threw out his convictions. The court also said it wouldn’t declare the odor of marijuana smoke offensive. It depends on the “intensity, duration, or frequency” of the smoke, according to the court. “We are not prepared to declare that the odor of marijuana smoke is equivalent to the odor of garbage. Indeed, some people undoubtedly find the scent pleasing,” the court wrote.   read more

PITCHf/x drew some praise from players and even the umpires whose jobs it might take. They said the system—which leaves them free to watch for foul balls and checked swings, and act as review officials—helped speed the game along. To make its calls, PITCHf/x uses three cameras to look at the strike zone for each batter. In the two Pacifics games, the computer balked only once, when it overheated.   read more

Galt returned to Washington in 2008 as deputy director of the Office of Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs. She was sent to North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, in 2010, first as public affairs advisor and the following year as senior public affairs advisor. Galt went back to China in 2012 as the consul general in Guangzhou, supervising the 400-person office there.   read more

Residents of China have accounted for 90% of the visas issued from DHS in 2014, according to government data. “For rich Chinese, a green card is a ticket out of China -- a way to escape heavy pollution or gain access to improved education options,” wrote CNN’s Sophia Yan. EB-5 has proven popular with scammers and possibly even spies who have used the program to gain entry into the country. The SEC reportedly received more than 100 tips of possible securities fraud connected to the EB-5.   read more

Analysts say many oil companies aren’t interested in expanding their operations in the Gulf of Mexico for the foreseeable future. Indeed, ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron didn’t even bother to show up at the auction. The gulf was the site of the nation’s worst oil spill in 2010, but environmental concerns aren’t the issue. The price of oil has plummeted from more than $100 a barrel last summer to almost $40 today, and many experts believe the market won’t rebound for another year or two.   read more

Testing of the drug showed only modest results in accomplishing the drug’s mission of improving female sexual desire. Its effectiveness rate was between 8% and 13%, while causing such side effects as fainting, dizziness, and low blood pressure. The drug was originally created to act as an anti-depressant, but it was found to be ineffective for that purpose. So it was decided to instead promote it as a cure for decreased female libido.   read more

At least 14 officers have been charged in the past five months with committing murder, homicide, or manslaughter while on duty. This total is higher than the average two-year total of cops charged for on-duty killings. From 2005 to 2011, there were 46 cases of officers charged for on-duty killings of any kind, or 6.5 cases per year on average, which produces a total of 13 cases over two years. If the rate of the past five months is annualized, the total for 2015 would reach 33.   read more

Practical Money Skills, a financial literacy website, says the going rate by the Tooth Fairy these days has declined for the second year in a row. It says the average amount of money left under a child’s pillow in exchange for a tooth is $3.19 so far this year. That amount is down from $3.43 last year and $3.70 in 2013. The most common gift is a one-dollar bill, which is left by 32% of the parents.   read more

The DEA conducted the mass surveillance without court approval, gathering billions of phone records on calls made to more than 100 countries. “Friday’s decision is rare,” Rumold wrote. “EFF is not aware of any other case where discovery has been allowed into a government mass surveillance program. And the order forces the government to answer questions, under oath, about the steps it took to ensure that all illegally collected records have been fully purged from all government systems.”   read more

Since 1965, the U.S. has had a nine-fold increase in the number of scientists, while the NIH budget has expanded four-fold. The rate of new drugs hitting the market has not been as strong, but the number has doubled during this span. But life expectancy gains have remained constant at about two months per year. “There is something wrong in the process, but there are no simple answers,” Bowen said. “It may be a confluence of factors that are causing us not to be getting more bang for our buck.”   read more

The EPA estimates the regulations would cost the industry up to $420 million to implement by 2025. Oil and gas producers, along with Republican members of Congress, criticized the plan, saying it’s too expensive and will cost jobs. But since Chevron Texaco, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell made a combined $61 billion in 2014, the oil companies can probably afford it. Environmentalists say the plan doesn’t go far enough as it applies primarily to new wells, not most existing facilities.   read more

The performance of the body scanners has been so bad that one lawmaker, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), said TSA should use metal detectors as a backup system to catch threats. “These things weren’t even catching metal,” he said. “If you really want to keep using those, and I’m not saying we shouldn’t, at a minimum we should put a metal detector on the other side,” Johnson told Politico. “Why not go through two? You’ve just gotta use common sense.”   read more

Grammarly, an automated-proofreading company, evaluated the grammar of those backing the 2016 Republican presidential candidates. The analysis was based on the comments posted on the official Facebook pages of each contender. Trump’s supporters, according to Grammarly, had 12.6 grammar errors per hundred words, which put them dead last. Carly Fiorina’s supporters had the fewest grammar mistakes, with 6.3 errors per hundred words.   read more