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

The legal action is part of what is described as a “vast multi-district” lawsuit against hundreds of defendants who are claimed to have provided support for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. On appeal the litigation was restored, which put Al-Swailem back as a defendant. He again asked to be removed, as did the Saudi Royal Family, saying Al-Swailem’s position as head of the charities entitled him to diplomatic immunity. Judge Daniels granted Al-Swailem’s motion last week.   read more

When 3 million gallons of heavy-metal laced water first poured from the Gold King mine into the Animas River, it was the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the spotlight. Now, it has come out that those working at the mine when the waste poured out worked for Environmental Restoration LLC, based in Missouri. Environmental Restoration frequently contracts for the EPA, collecting more than $350 million in business from the agency.   read more

Physicians have long prescribed drugs for “off-label” uses, but drug companies have been forbidden to market their products for those purposes. The case hinged on a 2012 New York City federal appeals court decision that found a pharmaceutical sales rep had not violated FDA rules in promoting off-label use for a narcolepsy drug, Xyrem.   read more

The Lead Inspector General for Overseas Contingency Operations’ reports are so lacking in content that Anthony H. Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies compares the group to Monty Python’s “Ministry of Silly Walks.” He added that the Lead IG report “reads more like a public relations exercise than anything else. It also follows a pattern within the Executive Branch of steadily reducing reporting that has any negative content…”   read more

Jeb Bush said Thursday that his brother George W. Bush’s efforts in “taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal.” The cost of taking out Saddam Hussein, who was found to have no weapons of mass destruction, was staggering. --More than 4,424 American lives were lost fighting in Iraq. Those numbers don’t include veterans suffering from PTSD who killed themselves after returning home. Thousands more American service members were seriously wounded.   read more

The percentage of black students in majority white schools has fallen to a level not seen since 1968, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics. In 2011, majority white schools had an average of 23.2% black students. That compares to a high of 43.5% in 1988.   read more

Dole and Chiquita used the pesticide dibromochloropropane (DBCP), manufactured by Dow Chemical and others, on their banana farms in Central and South America. The plaintiffs who had worked on those farms claimed in their suit that they were exposed to the chemical in the 1970s and ’1980s, but illnesses such as kidney problems, infertility and an increased risk of cancer did not appear until later. Their lawsuit also claimed that Dole has known about DBCP’s toxic properties since 1958.   read more

The EPA is supposed to acknowledge a claim within five days, decide within 20 days whether it will be investigated and complete any investigation within 180 days. But that’s not how it works in the real world. A list on the EPA website shows all the Title VI complaints and some of the claims are old enough to vote.   read more

Salmonella is another disease that will benefit from climate change. Extreme weather, particularly along coastlines, can lead to contaminated water and to salmonella poisoning. A study, published in Environment International, showed a 4.1% increase in the incidence of salmonella with an uptick in extreme temperature events, and 5.6% increase connected with extreme precipitation. In both cases, coastal areas had a higher risk of increased salmonella poisoning.   read more

Tamosaitis was one of the group developing a technique for turning toxic and radioactive sludge into glass, which theoretically could be buried for thousands of years. However, Tamosaitis began to believe that the process was flawed and would result in a buildup of hydrogen gas and clumps of plutonium which could start a nuclear reaction.   read more

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported that there have been more than 650 reports by pilots of drones flying near their aircraft so far this year. That’s a huge increase from the 238 such incidents reported in all of 2014.   read more

Rents have risen steadily since the housing crisis, so much so that the share of income people spent on rent reached 30.2% during the second quarter this year. That rate is the highest recorded by real estate company Zillow, which has been tracking such data since 1979. The percentage was 29.5% during the second quarter of 2014. The median rent nationwide also is up from last year, by 4.3%.   read more

Georgia’s DeKalb County, near Atlanta, is struggling with its reputation after a top official was convicted of corruption and a special investigation found numerous misappropriations of taxpayer money. Interim CEO Lee May hired two independent investigators to audit the county government. The investigators, Richard L. Hyde and Michael J. Bowers, concluded DeKalb’s government was “rotten to the core.”   read more

A panel of judges with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Republican consultant Robert Cahaly, who ran afoul of the state’s 1991 anti-robocall law. The law banned computerized cold calls “of a political nature including, but not limited to, calls relating to political campaigns,” according to Courthouse News Service. Violators were subject to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine.   read more

When a $42 million deal was agreed to, it was faxed to Mexico City, signed by Puig and forwarded to Puig’s putative agent, Jaime Torres, for his signature. All that money wasn’t going to Puig though—smugglers are paid for their work by taking a percentage of a player’s first contract, often a 20% to 30% cut. Some of the smugglers are connected with Mexican drug gangs and other criminals.   read more

An unnamed grand juror in the Ferguson case sued in federal court (pdf) for the right to speak out about the decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the officer who shot and killed Michael Brown. And St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch even admitted that he allowed false testimony to be presented before that grand jury, revealing after the fact that he knew that alleged eyewitness Sandra McElroy wasn’t actually present at the shooting and based her testimony instead on news reports.   read more