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 report examined 60 large corporations and found that 22 of the 30 companies that paid the highest tax rates created nearly 200,000 jobs over a five-year period. Meanwhile, those companies that paid little or no taxes actually laid off employees— more than 51,000 during that same period. Verizon, the nation’s biggest wireless provider, earned $32 billion in U.S. profits over a four-year period and even received $951 in tax refunds—yet cut 56,000 employees from its payroll.   read more

Physicians at the veterans’ hospital in San Francisco have been caught renewing highly addictive painkillers to patients without seeing or talking to them first. The IG reviewed 264 opiate prescription renewals and learned that in 53% of cases, the physician renewing the medication had not communicated personally with the patient. The IG report also says there were seven opiate overdoses among patients at the hospital, and that doctors “did not consistently monitor patients for misuse.”   read more

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has come under fire for exposing its computer networks to possible infiltrations as a result of not following many of its own cyber-security policies. DHS’ inspector general (IG) said in a new report (pdf) that the agency was using old security controls and Internet connections that could not be verified as reliable. Officials also failed to review “top secret” information systems for vulnerabilities.   read more

It was 19-year-old Abdul Ghafar’s pick-up truck that was hit by the drone. The truck carried his mother, brother, sister-in-law and nephew, all of whom were killed. “We have the ID cards of these civilians,” he told the Times. “We have their graves. If someone can prove these were Taliban, I would accept any punishment.” He insists the U.S. was responsible for the loss of his loved ones, and he now wants vengeance. “If I could attack them, I would.”   read more

An animal rights organization has filed suit to free a chimpanzee being held in a New York trailer park, claiming non-humans deserve some of the same legal rights as people. The Nonhuman Rights Project filed its writ of habeas corpus with the New York Supreme Court, with a chimp named Tommy as the focus of the unusual legal case. Habeas corpus has been used frequently to help free people from unlawful imprisonment, but this time it’s being employed to assist a primate.   read more

It was about 4 am when Westbrook walked up to the front door, knocked and tried unsuccessfully to enter. He then walked towards the back of the house. Hendrix went outside armed with a handgun, and called out to Westbrook, who did not respond, but did approach Hendrix. That’s when Hendrix opened fire four times, killing Westbrook, who was found by police clutching some mail. It is believed that Westbrook was disoriented and suffering from exhaustion when he stopped at Hendrix’s house.   read more

Recently, the U.S. government has increased its use of secrecy orders, which totaled 5,445 by the end of FY2013—the highest number since 1994. Among that total are 21 “John Doe” orders, which refer to secrecy orders that are imposed on private inventors who received no government or military support for their patent applications or their inventions.   read more

The high level of distrust applies to day-to-day living, with the percentage whose level of trust is “just somewhat,” “not too much” or ”not at all” rising to 65% when handing a credit card or debit card to a clerk, 75% when dealing with drivers on the road, and 78% when meeting strangers on trips.   read more

Some years Obama has pardoned more turkeys than humans. Obama has pardoned two birds every year since 2009, compared with zero people in 2009 and 2012. In 2010, he pardoned nine people, and in 2011, it was 13. When it comes to commutation of prison sentences, his administration has granted just one out of 5,371 total applications.   read more

FARC leaders said they would participate in soccer matches to help foster reconciliation between them and the government. In an open letter, the group confessed to being “fanatical about football” and noted that its members play the sport between negotiating sessions with the government. The first game will be played in Cuba, where peace talks between the two sides are taking place.   read more

It has been 17 years since the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) began cleaning up the Cold War-era nuclear weapons plant, Savannah River Site, in South Carolina, and at the current pace, it may be another 30 years before the work is completed. That fact does not sit well with state officials who are now threatening to levy an enormous fine on DOE for not keeping to its original deadline of fixing the mess by 2023.   read more

A final settlement last week of the largest meat recall in the nation’s history assessed the largest monetary judgment ($155 million) ever entered in an animal abuse case. In response to the abuse videos and ensuing legal action—not to mention a century of exposé and scandal—lawmakers across the country sprang into action…to protect slaughterhouses and meat processors.   read more

HRA Pharma, the French manufacturer of Norlevo, an emergency contraceptive pill identical to Plan B (aka the morning-after pill), found that its product began to lose effectiveness for females above 165 pounds, and was completely ineffective for those weighing more than 176 pounds. The news could mean that millions of American women won’t be able to use Plan B or its generic equivalents. The average weight of females 20 years and older is 166.2 pounds.   read more

Critics of the program argued that there really was no evidence of an urban nuclear threat and that development of the technology to detect such a threat may not be possible. Despite attempts to cut Securing the Cities funding in 2009 and 2010, Congress finally made the pilot program permanent and increased its funding in 2011.   read more

Shezanne Cassim is the first foreign national to be charged under a 2012 cybercrimes law that targets threats to national security made via the Internet. It was only after five months of incarceration that Cassim was told what the charges are against him. His crime was posting a 19-minute video on YouTube about the fictional Satwa Combat School. The mock documentary was intended to satirize teenagers in Dubai who act like “gangstas,” but really are mild-mannered.   read more

The Army decided to expand the deal and purchased licenses for five servers and several thousand workstations, as well as annual maintenance. But by 2008, company officials realized the Army was using the software on more servers and workstations than it had paid for. In total, the service had installed the programming on at least 98 servers and 11,000 computers.   read more