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

A new report from the Center for American Progress disputes this assumption. It says about 164,000 seniors who lost their Medicare eligibility may not have Obamacare to fall back on if they live in the 10 states whose governors have declared they will opt out of the Medicaid expansion called for by the president’s law.   read more

Information collected by the apps includes phone numbers, precise locations and unique serial codes of a mobile device, which are then transmitted to app developers, advertising networks or other companies, according to the FTC report. Regulators warned that the information could be used to locate or contact children or track their activities across different apps without their parents’ knowledge or consent.   read more

With 54 nations ranked, American fourth-graders ranked 11th in math and 7th in science, while eighth-graders were 9th in math and 10th in science. Also, only 7% of US students reached the advanced level in eighth-grade math, compared to 48% of eighth graders in Singapore and 47% of eighth graders in South Korea.   read more

Privacy advocates have expressed concerns over the deployment of the technology on buses, saying the moves raise questions about the limits of legally protected privacy in public spaces. This mass government eavesdropping on the public will occur without any kind of court order or warrant.   read more

The Republican-led legislature in 2011 approved “Choose Life” specialty plates for automobiles, but not plates with a pro-choice message. The American Civil Liberties Union sued to have the legislation thrown out, which U.S. District Court Judge James Fox agreed to do last week.   read more

Support for full legalization of marijuana continues to grow among Americans. In 1969 when Gallup first asked about legalizing pot, only 12% supported the idea. That percentage expanded to about a third of the population by 2005, and now it’s up to 48%, with 60% of those aged 18 to 29 favoring legalization.   read more

In seven states, atheists cannot run for public office, and in Arkansas, they can’t even testify as witnesses at trials, according to the report. Outside the United States, religious skeptics suffer persecution or discrimination—or even death. At least seven nations that operate under Islamic law have provisions for executing atheists. The seven are Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Mauritania, and the Maldives.   read more

If a single man and a single woman each earn $200,000, Wimer explained, neither would owe any additional Medicare payroll tax. But if they are married, they would owe $1,350, thanks to the 0.9% extra tax on earnings over $250,000. Among the wealthiest 20% of households, the tax increases will average about $6,000 next year. Altogether, the new taxes are expected to raise $318 billion over 10 years.   read more

Led by Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), 12 other senators want the administration to accept restrictions on spying on Americans who communicate with foreigners that have nothing to do with terrorism. Those siding with Wyden include conservative Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah). “You have this potentially large pile of communications and nobody knows how many Americans are in that pile,” Wyden told The Washington Post.   read more

An investigation by the Boston Globe found that ICE freed more than 8,500 detainees convicted of murder, rape, and other crimes over the past four years, usually because their home countries refused to take them back. More than 20 nations have turned down U.S. requests to receive deported criminals.   read more

A Humanist and president of West Point’s Secular Student Alliance, Page said he witnessed routine prayers at mandatory events for cadets and rewards to students who participated in religious retreats and chapel choirs. Page served two years in the Army as an enlisted soldier before entering West Point, where he majored first in chemical engineering and then in management.   read more

Many documents produced by the U.S. government are confidential and not released to the public for legitimate reasons of national security. Others, however, are kept secret for more questionable reasons. The fact that presidents and other government officials have the power to deem materials classified provides them with an opportunity to use national security as an excuse to suppress documents and reports that would reveal embarrassing or illegal activities.   read more

The 6,000 page report is said to conclude that “enhanced interrogation” techniques—including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, forced nudity and physical abuse—contributed little or no intelligence that could not have been obtained legally. Waterboarding used to be called “water torture,” and the U.S. hanged Japanese interrogators who used it on American POWs during World War II.   read more

The committee is offering several inaugural packages, each with a different mix of goodies and named for a president: Washington ($1 million from institutions and $250,000 from individuals); Adams ($500,000 from institutions and $150,000 from individuals); Jefferson ($250,000 from institutions and $75,000 from individuals); and Madison ($100,000 from institutions and $10,000 from individuals).   read more

Under the new rules, the State Department would get 48 hours to review Twitter posts and five days to approve a blog entry, speech, or remarks prepared for a live event. The agency also would require 30 days to examine manuscripts before books go to print.   read more

Beginning last week, officers and supervisors initiated inspections of all Air Force locales to remove any calendar, poster, briefing slide or other photo that displays women in a sexual manner. The decision impacts all levels of the Air Force, including reserves and Air National Guard units. The goal is to completely remove the photos by December 17.   read more