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

The state that’s home to the maker of oxycodone, one of the most abused painkillers in the United States, is also the only one in the nation that doesn’t have a government prescription drug database, thereby encouraging misuse of medications. Other Republicans have grown frustrated with Schaaf’s obstructionism, particularly those in neighboring states trying to stem their own drug abuse problems. With Missouri being so lax, drug addicts often cross the border and buy what they need.   read more

The research revealed beef cattle utilized 28 times more land, required 11 times more irrigation water for feed, used six times more nitrogen fertilizer that pollutes waterways, and discharged five times more greenhouse gases, particularly methane. On average, eating beef is about ten times more costly to the environment than eating any other animal-based foods, according to the report.   read more

In one high-profile case (the “Newburgh Four”), New York District Judge Colleen McMahan, the federal judge overseeing the trial, characterized the government as having come “up with the crime, provided the means, and removed all relevant obstacles.” She added, “Only the government could have made a ‘terrorist’ out of [defendant] Mr. [James] Cromitie, whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in its scope.”   read more

The UTEP team found that an average of 66 children were being picked up at the border each day. Thirty Border Patrol agents were required to transport the children from Fort Brown to other locations where they could be fed and cleaned. All told, 24,000 unaccompanied minors were processed by Border Patrol stations in Texas last year, making it clear that the federal government had a brewing crisis on its hands.   read more

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company is expected to challenge the verdict that featured $23.6 billion in punitive damages. In addition to that sum, the jury granted compensatory damages totaling $16.9 million in the case brought by Cynthia Robinson, the widow of chain smoker Michael Johnson, who died 18 years ago of lung cancer at age 36.   read more

More than half of all the world’s HIV patients are not aware of their medical condition, according to a new United Nations’ report. Nineteen million of the 35 million living with the human immunodeficiency virus are unaware that they’re infected. Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS, which produced the report, says: “Whether you live or die should not depend on access to an HIV test.”   read more

Using the online fundraising website Kickstarter, journalist Will Potter managed to raise $75,000 to purchase multiple drones for aerial surveillance of large livestock facilities. Potter told NPR’s The Salt that the move was necessary since seven states have adopted “ag-gag” bills that outlaw the collecting of images inside such operations that reveal neglect or abuse.   read more

Cities such as Chattanooga, Tennessee, have become groundbreaking examples of what local governments can do to provide high-speed fiber optic networks to residents and local businesses. That city created its “Gig City” operation that’s at least 50 times faster than the national average for $70 a month. But city officials there have been prohibited from expanding to nearby communities eager for the service because of a state law backed by telecommunications companies.   read more

“When I found out that the NSA was collecting records of my phone calls, I was shocked,” Smith said in a prepared statement. “I have heard of other governments spying indiscriminately on their own citizens, but I naively thought it did not happen in America. I believe who I call, when I call them, and how long we talk is not something the government should be able to get without a warrant. I sued because I believe the Constitution protects my calls from government searches."   read more

A military commission had found al-Bahlul guilty of supporting terrorism, solicitation and conspiracy. But the appellate court, in a unanimous decision, invalidated the first two convictions, saying they weren’t considered war crimes prior to the Military Commissions Act of 2006. and the court majority questioned the third.   read more

The 15-count indictment says that the company had been warned by the federal government at least six times that it was acting as a drug courier. The online pharmacies at issue were those that didn’t rely on prescriptions from physicians. Rather, they relied on an online questionnaire filled out by buyers without a doctor ever examining a patient. According to the indictment, the drugs shipped by FedEx included Ambien, Diazepam, Alprazolam (Xanax), and Clonazepam.   read more

The report charged that Muro created a job for a friend in violation of civil service regulations; that he had an improper relationship with a contractor for the National Cemetery Administration (NCA), which he managed; and that he improperly gave that contractor business for educational services that were already available through VA channels.   read more

In 2012, there began to be a drumbeat of criticism about P&G’s earnings and stock price. An outside activist investor, Bill Ackman, leveled complaints about the company’s performance, saying that McDonald was spending too much time on outside activities. Despite cutting thousands of jobs and bringing up P&G’s stock price, McDonald was pushed out in June 2013 and replaced by the man he had succeeded in the job, A.G. Lafley.   read more

Inmates will have to go before a judge and ask that their sentences be reduced. If the judge grants the maximum reduction, about two years will be shaved off the average inmate’s sentence. Prisoners shouldn’t start packing their bags yet though; they won’t be able to begin petitioning judges for the reductions until November 2015.   read more

The granddaddy of spying authorizations goes back to the Reagan Administration, and even Congress doesn’t know much about how it works. So, what’s 12333 being used for? According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, its authority is used to cull American’s electronic address books and buddy lists, to put malware on Facebook servers and to justify the recording of all of a country’s telephone calls.   read more

Oil producers have long injected fracking waste into aquifers that had been deemed by the state as having no potable water and are not protected from such practice. However, the maps delineating where waste aquifers are compared to useable water are often inaccurate.   read more