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

At least three nations have deployed missiles that can destroy enemy positions without any guidance from human operators. “An autonomous weapons arms race is already taking place,”said physicist Steve Omohundro. Norway has the Joint Strike Missile, which can lock in on targets without human control. The Pentagon is testing Lockheed's Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, but officials won’t say if it can attack on its own. Many fear autonomous weapons will make warfare more likely or destructive.   read more

As President Barack Obama works to establish policies to limit climate-changing emissions through federal regulatory actions and an international accord with China, Republicans are determined to use their new congressional power to stymie those efforts. While the EPA moves to strengthen limits on smog-causing ozone and reduce coal ash waste by power plants, Republicans may throw a wrench in Obama’s environmental plans by trying to cut off EPA funding.   read more

The government actions involved agencies in the U.S., Britain and Switzerland handing out combined fines of $4.25 billion to major international banks caught rigging the $5.3 trillion-a-day world of foreign exchange. The biggest penalty by a single regulator came out of the Financial Conduct Authority of Britain, which hit five major banks with more than $1.7 billion in fines. In Washington, the CFTC announced $1.4 billion in penalties against Citigroup, HSBC, JPMorgan, RBS and UBS.   read more

During the first eight months of 2014, blacks and Hispanics made up 86% of the low-level marijuana possession busts. However, the two groups make up only 60% of the city’s population, while whites have higher rates of marijuana use. “To the extent the police department continues to disproportionately enforce the law in black and Latino communities, any administrative change on minor marijuana possession will constitute window-dressing in the name of reform,” said U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.   read more

If there’s one branch of the armed services that leans Democratic, it is the U.S. Army. About $534,000 was given to political candidates, party committees and outside spending groups by active duty military personnel, according to OpenSecrets.org. As for the Navy, “a plurality of its donations” went to Democrats and liberal groups. The vast majority of members of the Air Force (74%) and Marine Corps (81%) who wrote checks really leaned in the GOP’s direction.   read more

U.S. drone technology is now in the hands of Iran, which claims to have reverse-engineered an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In December 2011, the Iranian military captured a Lockheed UAV after it strayed into Iran’s airspace from Afghanistan. Iran claimed they’d hacked into the drone’s electronic system, allowing them to take control and divert it to their country. Engineers reportedly took the drone apart and figured out how it works, allowing them to build their own version.   read more

The FBI reported that the number of murders and non-negligent homicides last year fell 4.4% to 14,196, the lowest total since 1968. The murder rate has also been dropping and stands at 4.5 per 100,000 population. Firearms were used in 69% of the murders in 2013. Violent crimes, a category that includes murder, also dropped 4.4% to 1.16 million last year. Not since 1978, when there were 1.09 million violent crimes, was that figure so low.   read more

The president’s proposal comes amid growing concern over efforts by telecommunications giants like Verizon and Comcast to charge corporations like Netflix extra money to gain greater bandwidth and faster streaming for customers. Instead, net neutrality would mean that a provider couldn’t block legal sites, couldn’t “throttle” or slow traffic, and couldn’t pay to get faster traffic. Obama has no power to make the change directly. The FCC might or might not follow his suggestion.   read more

When it comes to investing in the market, members of Congress love their blue chip stocks. A new database from the watchdog group MapLight has revealed the most popular companies that senators and representatives invested in last year. General Electric led the way with 69 lawmakers owning stock in the corporation. The total value of the shares ranged between $2.3 million and $5.9 million, according to MapLight. The second most popular stock was Microsoft, owned by 57 lawmakers.   read more

Innate potatoes are manipulated to contain less of the chemical acrylamide, which can cause cancer in people who eat fried potatoes. The GMO potato also is designed to bruise less during harvesting and transport. Simplot is hoping the Innate potatoes might face less pushback than previously marketed genetically modified versions. One reason is the modifications are meant to solve a human health problem, rather than fight farm pests.   read more

Consumers count on the FDA to keep food safe, but the agency tests very little of the produce sold in the U.S. for pesticides The FDA tests only one-tenth of 1% of the food imported for use on U.S. dinner tables, and that’s actually far more testing than happens to domestic food. This is startling considering that “from 1970 to 2007, hundreds of millions of pounds of pesticides were applied annually to U.S. food crops to protect them from pests,” the GAO wrote.   read more

Only 37% of those eligible to vote did on November 4. That was the lowest mark since 1942, when only 34% went to the polls. In 2010, the last midterm election, 41% of eligible voters cast ballots. The low turnout 72 years ago was understandable: the nation was at war with Germany and Japan. The dearth of voters this time was an indication of how unmotivated Democrats were to go out and support their party, despite frantic efforts by the party to convince them otherwise.   read more

The “4-week moving average was 279,000 [claims],” the Labor Department announced. “This is the lowest level for this average since April 29, 2000 when it was 273,000.” Overall, the nation’s jobless rate remained at 5.8%, which is the lowest it’s been since July 2008, when the Great Recession was just beginning to swallow the economy. Although the unemployment rate has gone down considerably from a high point of nearly 10%, many Americans are still waiting for job opportunities.   read more

The total value of property seized by state and local law enforcement from 2001 to 2012 soared from $407 million to $4.3 billion. Police are advised not to bother with jewelry and computers. Rings and necklaces are reportedly too hard to dispose of. Most valuable are flat-screen TVs, cars and cash. Asset forfeitures are a way for law enforcement agencies to pad their declining budgets by confiscating cash and property from people, often minorities, under the flimsiest of pretexts.   read more

North Carolina has begun to do something no other state in the nation has attempted: Pay victims of forced sterilization. California only recently passed a law banning the practice after an investigation showed that female inmates in the state prison system continued to be sterilized. Thirty-two states participated in forced sterilizations from early in the century until 1974. People were sterilized as a way to “cleanse” society of poverty and those with defects.   read more

Perhaps they should change the name to the Inland Patrol. Courts have ruled that the Border Patrol needs stronger justification for stopping people when they’re more than 100 miles from the border. However, officers in Texas have arrested people as far as 350 miles from the border with only the racial appearance of the arrestee as justification.   read more