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 case involves Michelle L. Kosilek, who was known as Robert Kosilek when he strangled his wife in 1990. Shortly after his conviction, Kosilek asked state prison officials for surgery that would turn him into a woman. In September 2012 by District Court Judge Mark Wolf.approved the surgery on grounds that Kosilek had a serious medical condition, gender identity disorder.   read more

The 2013 session was clearly not a productive one, not with only 56 bills becoming law. But of those measures signed by President Barack Obama, only 16 were introduced by Democrats. The other 40 pieces of enacted legislation were sponsored by Republican lawmakers.   read more

Obama promised to move metadata out of government hands and into private ones. No specifics were provided, except that Obama called on the Department of Justice to work with the NSA and devise a plan within 60 days. The NSA will still be able to access the phone records, even after their move. But, going forward, any search of the metadata will require approval by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)—unless ”a true emergency” requires the NSA to act first without a judicial okay.   read more

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a consolidated complaint accusing Wal-Mart of illegally firing and disciplining nearly 70 workers. Some of the targeted employees were punished for going on strike last year, according to the pro-worker group Making Change at Walmart. The company’s illegal actions allegedly took place at 34 stores in 14 states.   read more

Tired of waiting for Congress to act on immigration reform, President Barack Obama has used his executive powers to halt deportations of many illegal immigrants. The changes will apply to unauthorized immigrants who haven’t broken the law, those who were children when they arrived in the United States, and adults caring for children. Obama also wants relatives of U.S. military personnel living in the country illegally to remain and not be deported.   read more

Vitter added that food stamp costs have doubled since 2008. Alan Pyke at AlterNet wrote that SNAP fraud rates are only 1%. Deborah Weinstein, executive director of the advocacy organization Coalition on Human Needs, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “Senator Vitter’s proposal will be especially tough on elderly and poor people who do not have the documents needed to get their photo ID, and who will struggle even to get to the necessary offices."   read more

Environmentalists, who have been particularly nervous over the closed-door negotiations, had their fears confirmed by WikiLeaks, which obtained draft documents from TPP meetings. The leaked materials indicate the U.S. has demanded stronger environmental rules, including calls for sanctions against participating countries that pollute. But those positions are opposed by most or all of the other Pacific Rim nations working on the deal.   read more

The super PAC claims that only 39% of its budget during the 2010 election went towards political spending—which is okay under federal law that places the ceiling at 50%. But in reviewing the super PAC’s financial records, the FEC concluded that Crossroads’ political spending reached 53% four years ago because Crossroads did not include “issue ads” that criticize a candidate without mentioning that there is an imminent election.   read more

Alta Ski Area, located in the mountains southeast of Salt Lake City, has barred snowboarders since the mid-1980s. The Forest Service got caught up in the litigation because most of the ski resort (85%) sits on public lands managed by the agency. Alta is one of only three ski resorts in the United States that prohibit snowboarding. But it is the only one that operates on public lands.   read more

An Internet security provider, Proofpoint, Inc., says it found the first example of an Internet of Things (IoT)-based hacking scheme that included at least one fridge, as well as thousands of computers, TVs, home-networking routers and multimedia centers. The consumer goods were responsible for sending out more than a quarter of the 750,000 malicious emails delivered between December 23, 2013, and January 6, 2014, by unidentified cyber criminals.   read more

The list of health problems caused by smoking now includes diabetes, colorectal and liver cancers, erectile dysfunction, ectopic pregnancies (those occurring outside the womb), vision loss, tuberculosis, rheumatoid arthritis, impaired immune function and cleft palates. The report concludes that “The tobacco epidemic was initiated and has been sustained by the aggressive strategies of the tobacco industry, which has deliberately misled the public on the risks of smoking cigarettes.”   read more

Text message collecting is done under a powerful program labeled Dishfire, which vacuums up “pretty much everything it can,” according to documents produced by GCHQ, the UK’s spy agency. Dishfire collected an average of 194 million text messages a day in April 2011. During a typical day, the NSA could extract from text messages 800,000 financial transactions, 113,000 electronic business cards and thousands of travel and meeting details.   read more

The country’s poppy fields are responsible for more than $150 million a year in revenue for Islamic militants, according to James L. Capra, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s chief of operations, who provided written testimony to the caucus. “The Taliban is involved in taxing opium poppy farmers; operating processing laboratories; moving narcotics; taxing narcotics transporters...[and] providing security to poppy fields, drug labs, and opium bazaars,” Capra said.   read more

Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan filed a petition seeking a court order to bar members of the Crips and the Bloods gangs from entering or breaking the law in the community known as the East Aldine Safety Zone. The East Aldine Safety Zone consists of 217 acres of north Harris County. It covers two schools, businesses, and commercial and residential housing.   read more

The State Department was criticized for not improving security at its diplomatic mission despite warnings of growing violence in the city. The CIA was faulted for not sharing information about the existence of its outpost with the U.S. military. Both offices were admonished for not working out of the same building, which often is the case at U.S. diplomatic missions in other countries.   read more

34 officers—also known as missileers—were involved in cheating on monthly proficiency exams that test their knowledge of firing the missiles during a crisis. One officer was charged with sending correct answers by text message to 16 of the test-takers. The other 17 were charged with having knowledge of the cheating and not reporting it, which is a violation of Air Force ethics rules.   read more