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

In 2001, Gegeshidze cbecame a senior fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (GFSIS), a think tank. During his time at GFSIS, Gegeshidze wrote many scholarly papers and articles about Georgian policy, much of it about regional security and Georgia’s role as part of Europe. Gegeshidze remained at GFSIS until being sent to Washington as ambassador.   read more

Former members of the U.S. Congress and those who failed to win sit on top of nearly $100 million in campaign funds that weren’t spent by Election Day. Some campaign war chests are brimming with money. At least nine former congressional members and candidates have $1 million or more. Former U.S. senator Evan Bayh, out of office three years, still has almost $10 million in surplus campaign cash. That money sits in an investment account accruing thousands of dollars in interest each week.   read more

Never before in its history has the FBI allowed, nor ordered, its agents to document interrogations. In fact, officials explicitly told agents to not record interrogations. One reason was uncovered in an FBI memo saying defendants might be acquitted by jurors who saw the FBI's tactics. Defense attorneys and others hailed the policy reversal. “As we have seen from data regarding wrongful convictions, coercive police techniques...[can] produce false confessions,” said Jerry Cox.   read more

A license plate reader, mounted in a police car, misread one digit on Denise Green’s license plate, triggering an alert that the vehicle was stolen. Even though the wanted vehicle looked nothing like Green’s, four officers drew their weapons on Green, who was forced from her car and ordered to kneel on the pavement. The incident resulted in Green suing San Francisco, raising the question whether technology alone is enough to legally justify a search.   read more

The age of robot-driven cars is here, thanks to Google. These self-driving vehicles on California’s Bay Area roadways are ushering their human passengers to their destinations. So far, Google’s cars have a perfect law-abiding record: Not one of them has been issued a traffic citation…yet. But when that day comes, who’s going to pay the fine? Google? Or the person behind the wheel, who has no control over the car? The programmer who wrote the algorithm that made the mistake?   read more

Oklahomans are on the hook for more than $300,000 for adopting an amendment banning the use of Islamic law in state courts. Established in 2010 by lawmakers and voters, the “Save Our State Amendment” targeted Sharia law, which conservatives claimed was a threat to Oklahoma. But Muneer Awad argued the law violated the First Amendment’s prohibition on government favoring one religion over another, and he successfully sued to stop the law .   read more

Liberals and conservatives in the U.S. Senate expressed concerns about David Barron’s selection for the judgeship due to his writing at least one drone-assassination memo believed to be the basis for using drones to target and kill a U.S. citizen in 2011. Opponents threatened to derail the nomination unless Obama agreed to disclose the memos to Senators, which he did. The move apparently worked with liberal critics, as the Senate voted 52 to 43 to advance Barron’s nomination.   read more

The U.S. is reportedly experiencing an “epidemic” of pedestrians being hit and killed by automobiles. But the most startling statistics involve minorities. Death rates for blacks were 60% higher than Caucasians, while fatality rates for Hispanics were 43% higher than whites. Hispanics in S. Carolina were 189% more likely than whites to be killed as pedestrians. In Wisconsin, blacks were 145% more likely to be killed.   read more

The nation’s two largest cable companies want to merge, creating not just a new industry dominance but a giant mess of customer dissatisfaction. Comcast and Time Warner say their merger will be a blessing for subscribers. But a new survey reveals that Time Warner ranks dead last in customer satisfaction, with Comcast right behind it. "It’s hard to see how combining two negatives will be a positive for consumers," said David VanAmburg.   read more

In the eyes of one civil liberties organization, the U.S. Justice Department office overseeing national security matters is a real winner when it comes to keeping the American public in the dark. Each year, Investigative Reporters and Editors gives out the “Golden Padlock” award to the government agency best at being overly secretive with information. Nominations for the “honor” are now being accepted, and Justice’s National Security Division has been put up for consideration.   read more

Three corporate players in the flour milling business, which is essential to the U.S. food manufacturing industry, have gotten provisional approval from federal anti-trust regulators to form the nation’s largest producer of wheat flour. Cargill, CHS and ConAgra Foods intend to form a joint venture called Ardent Mills that will control 40 mills and yield about $4 billion in annual sales. The new company will be responsible for about one-third of the U.S. flour business.   read more

By all accounts Attorney General Holder held a straight face when he announced that the indictment of five Chinese military hackers for stealing U.S. corporate secrets. As this administration has been repeatedly criticized for letting the NSA pry into overseas computer systems, the charges were greeted with skepticism, if not laughter from some critics. “This could...open U.S. officials to similar charges [from] other countries," said Professor Sean Lawson.   read more

The CIA has finally shuttered its fake vaccination program that was set up to help find Osama bin Laden three years ago. But the operation did much harm in Pakistan, where health workers were murdered once word got out about the program. At least 22 polio workers have been killed since 2012, and more have been kidnapped. The decision comes a year after public health officials wrote to President Obama to complain about the the phony program.   read more

The overcharges in some cases were absurd, like one contract employee who allegedly worked 1,208 hours over a 12-day span. In actuality, 12 days consists of 288 hours. The companies also were caught over-classifying workers for jobs for which they lacked qualifications, or claiming they held multiple jobs concurrently. One depot aircraft mechanic was also classified by Northrop as senior general engineer, an integrated logistics manager, a quality assurance manager, and three more titles.   read more

It has already been widely reported that poor Americans are increasingly being sentenced to prison because they can’t pay court-ordered fines and fees. But an NPR investigation discovered that defendants in most states are charged for government services that used to be free, including those required under the Constitution, like the right to have an attorney. Those most impacted by the development of these costs are usually low-income and/or minorities.   read more

The U.S. military has been ordered by a federal judge to stop force-feeding a hunger striker at Guantanamo Bay and to preserve videos showing the controversial procedure. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler’s ruling came in the case of Mohammed Abu Wa’el Dhiab of Syria, who has been detained without trial for 12 years. Kessler raised concerns in a previous ruling, noting that it was “perfectly clear” that “force-feeding is a painful, humiliating and degrading process.”   read more