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

Sixteen states that rely heavily on coal-generated electricity have asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to delay its Clean Power Plan, which seeks to reduce carbon emissions by 30%. The plan requires the states to submit plans by September 2018 that spell out how they will begin cutting emissions in their jurisdictions by 2022. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said in a statement that the EPA plan represented an “illegal power grab by the Obama administration.”   read more

Raised by her mother, who cleaned houses for a living, Roth grew up in the Anacostia neighborhood of southeast Washington D.C. “There were times,” she has said, “when it was five of us in a two-bedroom apartment and there were times when there were just two of us. There were times when the lights were on and times when they weren't. I know what it means to have the food truck come and get cheese and bread.”   read more

Roosevelt was a particular target of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who believed she was a Communist sympathizer. He amassed a 3,000-page file on Roosevelt, most of which has been released. However there are still 12 pages of the file, dealing with Roosevelt’s trips to the Soviet Union in 1957 and 1958, which the FBI has not made available.   read more

Among the findings of the study of 2014’s 100 top films: --Females 13 to 20 were as likely as those 21 to 39 to be shown in “sexy attire.” --No women over 45 were portrayed in a lead role. --Seventeen had no black speaking characters and more than 40 had no Asian speaking roles. --Out of 4,610 speaking characters, only 10 were gay, 4 were lesbian and 86 of the top 100 had no LGBT characters at all.   read more

A new report (pdf) from the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) says that more than 10,800 domestic violence victims could not be helped last year out of more than 78,500 victims overall who contacted programs. NNEDV said 28% of the programs were unable to provide the necessary resources because of cuts in government funding. Another 18% blamed cuts from private funding sources, and 14% reported reductions in individual donations as the cause.   read more

In 2008, Hawkins was named a deputy chief of mission again, this time in Luanda, Angola. He returned to Washington in 2010 to be director of the Office of Near East and South and Central Asia in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, where he managed human rights programs. In 2012, Hawkins was sent to Lagos, Nigeria as consul general.   read more

Figueiredo found himself on the other end of the get-fired-and-sent-to-America treatment later that year when Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff fired him hours before her second inauguration, allegedly for not having enough experience or knowledge about business as Brazil attempts to grow its economy. In July 2015, a document released by WikiLeaks revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) began targeting Figueiredo’s cell phone in March 2011.   read more

President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder would periodically make sounds about lightening up on states where medical marijuana is legal (now 23) despite federal laws banning the drug. And then Haag, a 2010 appointee of President Obama, would bust a bunch of dispensaries and give voice to a far less conciliatory policy.   read more

Heidt was posted to the United Nations in New York in 2007 as a counselor for economic and social affairs. He returned to Poland in 2009 to serve as deputy chief of mission in the Warsaw embassy. Since 2012, Heidt has been executive assistant to the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment.   read more

Not once did the moderators ask the candidates about plots by white supremacists and other right-wing threats. The recent shooting of parishioners of a predominantly black Charleston church never came up. In the 10 years that followed Sept. 11, right-wing extremists carried out an average of 337 attacks annually in the U.S., with 254 people killed, according to ThinkProgress. American Muslims, on the other hand, are responsible for 20 plots in 13 years that resulted in 50 deaths.   read more

The “problem was particularly acute in the United States, where neurological deaths in men aged over 75 have nearly tripled and in women risen more than fivefold,” the Post reported. “The rate of increase in such a short time suggested a silent or even a hidden epidemic, in which environmental factors must play a major part, not just aging,” said study leader Colin Pritchard. He pointed to environmental changes in the last 20 years that “have seen increases in...petro-chemicals.”   read more

HitchBot, a hitchhiking robot, spent considerable time wandering across Canada and Europe without trouble. But it took only a couple weeks in the U.S. for the robot to meet a violent end. While traveling through Philadelphia, hitchBot had its head, arms and legs torn off. “It was quite a setback, and we didn’t really expect it,” Frauke Zeller, one of hitchBOT’s creators, told CNN. “We were spoiled by the kindness of other people who had looked after hitchBOT.”   read more

The SEC had dragged its heels because of stiff opposition from corporations. It’s possible that some executives don’t want to reveal the ratio between their pay and those working under them because the gaps in many cases will be huge. One think tank reported that CEOs were paid 300 times more than their employees in 2013. The ratio 50 years ago was only 20 to 1. “We have middle-class Americans who have gone years without seeing a pay raise, while CEO pay is soaring,” said Sen. Robert Menendez   read more

Defense contractors are upset that the Pentagon’s budget was only $496 billion in fiscal year 2015, down from $528.2 billion in 2011. The Center for Public Integrity reported that “an army of more than 400 lobbyists” invaded Capitol Hill to urge increased spending on military hardware. It also said total lobbying expenditures by the 53 top defense contractors was up to $58.5 million during the second quarter of this year, compared to $45.7 million during the same period in 2014.   read more

The ruling said “SB 14 disproportionately impacts Hispanic and African-American voters” in violation of the Voting Rights Act. An analysis “revealed that Hispanic registered voters and black registered voters were respectively 195% and 305% more likely than their Anglo peers to lack SB 14 ID.” The "great news" is "bittersweet because we’ve now gone through a federal election with this discriminatory voting law in place,” said Brennan Center's Wendy Weiser.   read more

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission wants energy corporations to reduce the amount of wastewater injection by 38% in a 40-mile stretch northeast of Oklahoma City. That area experienced 359 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or greater in 2014 after only 14 the year before that. This year’s total is on track to be 20% higher, according to The New York Times. Reuters reported that the earthquakes aren’t related to fracking. It’s the re-injection of saltwater that is pumped out of wells.   read more