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 documents included an NSA slide dated June 2012 showing passages of written messages sent by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who was running for office at the time. The messages revealed whom Peña Nieto was considering for his cabinet once he won the election. Another NSA slide displayed communication patterns between Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and her top advisers.   read more

Scientists believe there is a minimum of 320,000 viruses in mammals awaiting discovery. About 70% of these—called zoonoses—have the capability to cross over into humans. Given the sheer size of this number, the researchers say it is more vital than ever to devote resources to identify possible threats to human health and find ways to mitigate them before large numbers of people become sick.   read more

More than $1 billion in government contracts meant for small businesses owned by disabled veterans had been reclassified by the VA over the last decade, resulting in nearly $150 million worth of work going to non-veteran companies. The reclassification came about after VA officials realized it had awarded millions of dollars in contracts to businesses that fraudulently claimed to be owned by veterans.   read more

It took months to arrange the August 31 meeting between the historic enemies, and while the discussion was civil, no new understandings were reached. But the meeting took place, and in the eyes of some observers, that was enough. Those attending the meeting inside a Parkway Plaza hotel conference room were four members of the NAACP’s Casper branch, which initiated the get together, and John Abarr, an organizer for the United Klans of America.   read more

Known as the Hemisphere Project, the government has paid AT&T to place its employees in drug-fighting units around the U.S., helping DEA agents and local police by supplying them with the phone data from as far back as 1987. Whereas the NSA claims it stores its phone-call data for only five years, the Hemisphere Project includes calls dating back 26 years. It also covers every call that passes through an AT&T switch, not just those made by AT&T customers.   read more

If arrested and placed in the back of police car, anything said by a suspect can be used against them in court, including remarks captured on video. Numerous individuals in Florida have learned this lesson the hard way. Miranda rights inform suspects that they don’t have to say anything to police after being apprehended. This applies not only in an interrogation room at a police station, but also in the rear of a cop car.   read more

Michael Sivak wrote for the American Scientist. “I have estimated that in metropolitan Mumbai [India] alone, the large population and hot climate combine to create a potential energy demand for cooling that is about a quarter of the current demand of the entire United States.”   read more

Microsoft and Google each filed litigation in June citing their rights under the First Amendment to explain their roles in the NSA intel gathering. This move was vital, the companies argued, to refute criticism that they had collaborated in the snooping. But after getting nowhere with these initial legal maneuvers, the Internet giants decided to join forces.   read more

The games draw significant online audiences, up to 1.7 million unique viewers. By comparison, a typical National Hockey League game on network television last season drew a quarter of that audience. The World Championship final for League of Legends will be held October 4, at Los Angeles’ Staples Center, home of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Kings. The winning team will take home $1 million.   read more

Whoever said that crime doesn’t pay, never broke the law for the National Security Agency. According to documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the spy agency forked over millions of dollars to several major Internet companies after some of their surveillance work was ruled illegal. But the real puzzle is why the web giants—which include Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook—were entitled to the money in the first place.   read more

The ruling came in the case of Kubert v. Best. Linda and David Kubert both lost their left legs when their motorcycle was struck in September 2009 by 18-year-old Kyle Best, who got distracted while texting with longtime friend Shannon Colonna, then seventeen. After settling their lawsuit with Best, the Kuberts sought damages from Colonna, claiming that her texting to Best while he was driving was negligent and caused their injuries. The appeals court agreed with the Kuberts—up to a point.   read more

“[T]he results from the first 12 months [were] striking. Even with only half of the 54 uniformed police officers wearing cameras on any given day, the department overall had an 88 percent decline in the number of complaints filed against officers, compared with the 12 months before the study.” Perhaps not surprisingly, the study found that officers with cameras used force 60% less often.   read more

From 2000 to 2003, Koskinen served as deputy mayor and city administrator of Washington, D.C., and from 2004 to 2008, he was president of the United States Soccer Foundation, which is the major charitable arm for soccer in the U.S. In the wake of the collapse of the mortgage bubble and resulting crisis, Koskinen served as non-executive chairman of Freddie Mac from 2008 to 2011, including a stint as acting CEO in 2009.   read more

In the latest revelation provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden, it is now known that the federal government pays 35,000 civilian and military specialists to break and decipher encrypted messages sent across the Internet. 21% of the intelligence budget (about $11 billion) is dedicated to the Consolidated Cryptologic Program that staffs 35,000 employees in the NSA and components of the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines.   read more

The law, which is apparently the first of its kind in the U.S., requires makers of prescription drug sold or distributed in Alameda County, California, to fund and operate product stewardship programs allowing consumers to turn in unused medicines safely, rather than flushing them down the toilet and into the water supply or letting them hit the streets. Failure to comply carries up to a $1,000 per day fine.   read more

When the power grid was designed, electric power generation was dominated by large power plants burning fossil fuels or splitting atoms, and high capacity transmission lines were placed only near them. Wind farms, however, are typically located in sparsely populated areas or even off-shore, where high capacity lines do not exist. Bottlenecks also occur when more energy is being produced than the system can safely transport.   read more