Imagine that China’s dictator, Xi Jinping, sends one million Chinese troops to invade the United States. Fighting breaks out all over the U.S. as U.S. troops and civilians battle against the Chinese invaders. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, are killed. Meanwhile, China has taken over Florida and declared it an overseas province of China, with Chinese nationals taking over control of the Florida government.   read more

Hundreds of millions of phone records were vacuumed up by the spy agency in 2013. But out of this enormous volume of personal information, the NSA wound up probing the data belonging to only 248 individuals in the U.S., according to a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The report also showed that the agency asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court 178 times for phone record data in 2013.   read more

Subprime mortgages, the financial equivalent of a dark destructive force, have returned to the American home industry, which was devastated last decade by this type of loan. These home loans, intended for people with poor credit, are once again taking their place in the market, only this time under more regulatory control and occupying (so far) a much smaller share of outstanding mortgages.   read more

Judge Lynn Rosenthal made a spectacle of herself last month after driving drunk in a courthouse parking lot, hitting a police car and repeatedly driving into a gate. Rosenthal was the third Broward County judge in six months to be arrested for driving under the influence. Another was Judge Gisele Pollack, who was already in trouble for showing up for work drunk, twice, and was later arrested for being under the influence.   read more

The company is able to sell potentially faulty, even dangerous vehicles, because of a loophole in federal safety law. Car dealerships cannot sell new autos under recall, but they can sell used ones subject to recall. California lawmakers have tried to pass a bill that would put used cars on the same level as new ones when recalls are in play, but the bill died in a state Assembly committee.   read more

In Massachusetts, many SWAT teams are run by law enforcement councils (LEC). Some of these LECs hide behind corporate identities when public records requests are made. Those LECs have incorporated under the 501(c)(3) section of the tax code and claim that they’re exempt from public records requests.   read more

The zone in front of the Supreme Court is about 252 feet long. Just a year ago, the Supreme Court issued a new regulation that banned “picketing, speech making, marching, holding vigils or religious services and all other like forms of conduct that involve the communication or expression of views or grievances, engaged in by one or more persons, the conduct of which is reasonably likely to draw a crowd or onlookers.”   read more

The panel, which included former members of Democratic and Republican administrations, also criticized the administration for not conducting an analysis of whether the use of drones for secret killings is worth the price. “A serious counterterrorism strategy needs to consider carefully, and constantly reassess, the balance between kinetic action [use of force] and other counterterrorism tools, and the potential unintended consequences of increased reliance on lethal UAVs,” the report said.   read more

Gibson Dunn insisted that disclosing the information would cause the ARC to “suffer competitive harm because its competitors would be able to mimic the American Red Cross’ business model for an increased competitive advantage.” The firm did not specify who the ARC’s competitors are.   read more

In 2013, Susan Johnson, president of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post decrying s a breakdown in the Foreign Service system in favor of political appointees and regular civil service employees. Shell Smith and another Foreign Service officer circulated a letter expressing disagreement with the op-ed. In response, 11 former AFSA presidents asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee not to approve Shell Smith’s nomination.   read more

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspectors allow nearly all food imports to enter the country without undergoing visual examination. “The FDA has been outgunned and overmatched for years as a rising tide of imported food has found a place at the U.S. dinner table,” FairWarning’s Rick Schmitt wrote. “Because of budget constraints ordinarily only 1 percent to 2 percent of food imports are physically inspected by the agency at the border each year.”   read more

As the National Security Agency (NSA) examines the communications of millions of people in the United States and around the world, they had someone keeping an eye on them as well. Greenpeace on Friday flew its 135-foot blimp over the NSA’s Bluffdale, Utah, data facility. The blimp read “NSA—Illegal Spying Below” and “StandAgainstSpying.org.   read more

At least 1,600 people have killed themselves by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge since it opened in 1937, or about 21 a year. The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District voted Friday to approve the expenditure of $76 million to install nets about 20 feet below each side of the bridge. The nets should discourage jumpers. Anyone who jumps anyway will likely be injured, but not killed, when they fall into the barrier.   read more

he was instrumental in negotiations with FARC, the rebel army that had taken over much of Colombia’s interior. He did this despite FARC’s kidnapping of his daughter Juliana in 2000 from his alma mater, Javeriana, where she was studying political science. She was held three months before being released unharmed in March 2001 and later worked as a political consultant.   read more

In 1995, Prince Rainier III appointed Maccario Doyle consul in New York and two years later she was named Monaco’s consul general, a position she held until being named to the Washington post.   read more

From January to March, the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) took a big step backwards, contracting at an annual rate of 2.9%. The decline was the sharpest in five years. Economists attributed the weak economic showing to several causes: shrinking business inventories, a terrible winter throughout much of the country, and an unexpected dip in health care spending. That sector is expected to be volatile as the new health care law, which is expected to cut spending, takes effect.   read more

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has sought access to the Facebook accounts belonging to 381 people as part of an investigation into public workers, including police officers and firefighters, accused of defrauding the government with fake disability claims. Facebook’s executives have refused to comply with the warrants, saying it is compelled to protect the privacy of its users.   read more