Trump said he would send the National Guard to Toronto and impose 50% tariffs on all Los Angeles products. AllGov reporter Sidney Finster suggested that perhaps Trump had confused the two cities. Because Toronto is in Canada, not the United States, Trump can’t send the National Guard there. And because Los Angeles is in the United States, Trump can’t impose tariffs on a U.S. city. Trump defended his position by saying, “I’m always right.”   read more

The Keystone XL pipeline has hit a major snag in Nebraska, where a local judge threw out the governor’s approval for the project to cut through the state and kick landowners off their property. Environmentalists have opposed Keystone, arguing it would transport “dirty oil” that would contribute to global warming, harm wildlife, ruin underground water supplies, and risk the danger of oil spills on U.S. lands.   read more

Anyone who has visited the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.org may have had their online activity secretly monitored by the NSA and its British intelligence counterpart, GCHQ. This campaign included collecting the IP addresses of any individual who visited the WikiLeaks website “in real time, as well as the search terms that visitors used to reach the site from search engines like Google,” according to a report drawn from classified materials exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.   read more

The plan sparked objections from privacy advocates who feared the program would track the movements of ordinary citizens not suspected of criminal activity. “‘Build it first and worry about privacy and purpose later’—it is the same disease that has infected the NSA and so much of our government," said law professor Fred Cate. "This type of dragnet search is the modern equivalent of the general search that [the Constitution’s] framers were so anxious to guard against.”   read more

A fracking well owned by Chevron blew up last week near a rural Pennsylvania community, terrifying many local residents. For their terror the people of Bobtown got a letter of apology from the billion-dollar oil giant—and a coupon for a free pizza. But Chevron’s generosity did not stop there. The coupon also entitled recipients to a 2-liter bottle of soda.   read more

A dozen different industrial chemicals may each cause brain damage in children, according to new medical research. That research shows exposure to many toxic chemicals can create neurodevelopmental disabilities in kids, including autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. “Large numbers of children...are affected by toxic damage to brain development,” said Philippe Grandjean. “They suffer reduced attention span, delayed development and poor school performance."   read more

The bill would allow educators and parents to strike a child up to 10 times on their covered rear end, using hands only. It also permits “reasonable physical force” to restrain a child during the spanking. Bruises that result from this would be allowable under proposed the law. Additionally, the legislation would allow parents to give permission to others to spank their children. In addition to school officials, such people could include caregivers and high school students who are over 18.   read more

A classified document revealed that a U.S. law firm was monitored while representing the government of Indonesia in trade disputes with the U.S. The monitoring was performed by the Australian Signals Directorate, which works closely with the NSA to share intelligence on global threats. A lawyer involved in the trade talks said, “I always wonder if someone is listening, because you would have to be an idiot not to wonder in this day and age."   read more

The Obama administration has been moving aggressively to shift federal agencies closer to a paperless state by embracing new technology options. But this move has angered the companies that produce paper products, which are now fighting to stymie the administration’s plans. Under the cover of a group calling itself Consumers for Paper Options, the paper industry has lobbied members of Congress to roll back some changes implemented in recent years.   read more

The survey, involving 2,200 people and conducted by the National Science Foundation found more than 90% think scientists are “helping to solve challenging problems” and are “dedicated people who work for the good of humanity.” Just over 25% of respondents didn’t know the Earth revolved around the sun. More than half (52%) didn’t know human beings evolved from earlier species of animals.   read more

Many Republicans never liked the idea, but some liberals in New York have now voiced concerns about Common Core. Many of the new critics say the state rushed into testing students on the new standards before new standardized tests were ready—resulting in a two-thirds failure rate. Teachers have said they weren’t trained sufficiently in the new curriculum, or that the proper textbooks and education materials weren’t provided in time.   read more

The researchers concluded in their report that most of the slurs were not aimed at any particular person, and that about half of the time, the language was intended “in a non-offensive, non-abusive manner, to express in-group solidarity or non-derogatory description.” They added that “the racially-prejudiced tweets appear not to be uniform in nature; we suggest that a proportion of such tweets might be described as showing a ‘casual use’ of slurs.”   read more

Being gay or lesbian is a dangerous reality in many parts of the world. To date, at least 77 nations have anti-gay laws. Nearly half of these countries, 38, can be found among Africa’s 54 states. The most recent African country to target homosexuals is Uganda. President Yoweri Museveni announced last week that he would sign legislation making anyone convicted of a first-time homosexual act subject to 14 years in prison.   read more

Peter “PistolPete” Valentin has been sued 28 times since 2006 “on allegations of running slash-and-burn raids that left dozens of lives in ruins while resulting in few criminal convictions,” wrote the N.Y. Daily News reported. Vincent Orsini has been sued 21 times. But he’s cost the city more in settlements, $1.09 million, compared with $884,000 for cases involving Valentin. A total of 55 NYPD personnel were named as defendants in at least 10 lawsuits apiece over the past decade.   read more

The allegations included one instance in which a prosecutor told a mother whose five-year-old daughter had been assaulted by an adolescent that “boys will be boys.” Another case involved a woman who was raped, but prosecutors decided not to pursue charges, telling the victim, “All you want is revenge.” County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg had argued in court that the DOJ had no jurisdiction to investigate his office.   read more

Judge James Wynn wrote for the circuit court that the legislature’s action constituted “blatant viewpoint discrimination squarely at odds with the First Amendment.” He also noted that the state never denied that it was engaging in discrimination by allowing only “Choose Life” plates. “Instead, North Carolina contends that it was free to discriminate based on viewpoint because the license plate speech at issue was solely its own,” Wynn wrote.   read more

With just three-quarters of the membership it had at its peak in 1979, the United Auto Workers (UAW) hoped to start turning things around by unionizing an auto plant in the South for the first time. But despite no opposition from Volkswagen (VW), the factory’s owner, employees in the Tennessee plant rejected the UAW’s effort to join the union. In a closely watched election, workers voted against becoming part of UAW, 712 to 626.   read more