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 2006, Goldberg was named an ambassador for the first time, and sent to La Paz, Bolivia, for an intended three-year term that ended after two years with Goldberg’s expulsion as a persona non grata. A series of incidents in 2007 and 2008 indicating that U.S. embassy personnel were attempting to recruit Peace Corps volunteers and visiting American scholars as spies raised tensions.   read more

Career diplomat Michael S. Hoza has been management counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia since 2010. From 2007 to 2010 Hoza was management counselor and acting deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.   read more

The FDA approved the sale of Zohydro on October 25, despite a warning from its own staff in 2012 that said the drug will be abused more than traditional hydrocodone products like Vicodin, which was the most prescribed medication in the U.S. three years ago. The United States reportedly consumes 99% of the hydrocodone that is used around the world.   read more

Amos and others allegedly deprived accused Marines of due process, made misleading statements under oath, tried to hide evidence, and attempted to undermine the reputation of a Marine Corps whistleblower who exposed the unethical activities of Marine leaders, according to the letter. The allegations stem from 2011 when scout snipers in Afghanistan filmed themselves urinating on dead insurgents.   read more

At the hundreds of military bases set up in both countries, the U.S. military often resorted to disposing of waste by burning it in open-air pits. Everything from human waste to dead animals to plastics to asbestos and more were thrown into them, doused with jet fuel, and ignited. The result was thick, black plumes of smoke that filled the air with not just foul smells, but extremely unhealthy particles inhaled by soldiers.   read more

John L. Estrada is a native Trinidadian who has been senior manager for Lockheed Martin Training Solutions since 2008. Estrada immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 14 and enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age of 18 in September 1973, staying 34 years and serving as sergeant major of the Marine Corps, the highest-ranking enlisted Marine, from 2003 to 2007.   read more

from 2003 to 2006, Daughton served as deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Algiers, Algeria, from 2006 to 2009, where he got involved in a minor kerfuffle over a travel book about author Michael Mewshaw’s 4,000-mile trek across North Africa, including a visit to the U.S. embassy and a chat with Daughton. According to the book, Daughton was unusually—and undiplomatically—frank with Mewshaw, stating for example that Algeria’s “government is sclerotic and self-serving.”   read more

The NSA has operated a project called MUSCULAR that involves infiltrating Google’s and Yahoo’s network cables running between their data centers. The effort has also involved Britain’s intelligence agency, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). A classified document revealed that in one 30-day period from early December 2012 to early January 2013, the NSA processed and sent back 181,280,466 new records—including who sent or received e-mails and when.   read more

Among the prosecutors accused of wrongdoing were six named “prosecutor of the year” by the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys Advisory Committee. Of the cases examined, only two prosecutors were eventually punished. One was disbarred, while the other received a short suspension. As for those tried by these prosecutors, only two had their death sentences thrown out by appellate courts.   read more

McCall has criticized Zazzle for buckling under to the government threats rather than fighting back. Furthermore, Zazzle refused to supply copies of the government letters to McCall’s lawyer, offering only to read them over the phone. Meanwhile, McCall found another online partner, CafePress, to help him sell his shirts and mugs.   read more

The device—known as StarChase—fires a GPS bullet that sticks to the vehicle. From there, law enforcement can more safely track where the person is going without pursuing at top speed. Another advantage of StarChase is that once a police car falls back, a suspect might mistakenly assume his pursuers have given up and slow down as well. This increases the chance of them being caught and decreases risks to other motorists and pedestrians.   read more

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights claimed “there was a general and systematic violation of human rights” in Guantánamo, according to Rodrigo Escobar Gil, one of the body’s seven commissioners. As many as 46 detainees were force-fed through nasal tubes.   read more

“I no longer love blue skies. In fact, I now prefer grey skies. Drones don’t fly when sky is grey,” Zubair ur Rehman, 13, said, adding that his leg was injured by shrapnel during the strike. At one point in the testimony, the translator broke down in tears while relaying the family’s ordeal.   read more

These experts say approximately 250,000 people took part in the 29% of trials that haven’t been published. Considering only those trials funded by the pharmaceutical industry, the number rose to 32%. Drug makers are sometimes motivated to not publish clinical trial information in order to hide details of side effects or outright failures of new treatments. They also try to avoid disclosing data that might help their competition.   read more

CREW says 84% of senior defense officials who sought an ethics opinion between January 2012 and May 2013 were thinking about joining private industry, particularly defense contractors. At least 13 people listed Lockheed Martin as a possible employer, 13 listed Northrop Grumman, 10 listed Raytheon, eight listed General Dynamics and seven listed Boeing, according to CREW.   read more

A majority of Americans (60%) back the death penalty for convicted murderers. But this level of support is the lowest since November 1972, when 57% were in favor, according to a new Gallup poll. Support for executions peaked in 1994 at 80%. It has dropped since then, particularly with Democrats. Only 47% of Democratic voters now back the death penalty, representing a 28-point decline over the past 19 years.   read more