Trump said, “We need people to be afraid. Right now many Americans are surprised when protestors are killed, but they’ll get used to it.” Trump did add one suggestion: “Try not to kill white people. That gets too much attention. Stick to protestors of other colors.”   read more

Snowden said he was concerned that cellphones and smartphones serve as tracking devices that automatically create electronic dossiers that give third parties, including governments, detailed information on location. As an example of the dangers of location data, he cited the mortar attack in 2012 by the Syrian government that killed Marie Colvin, an American journalist who was reporting in Homs, Syria, for The Sunday Times of London.   read more

The findings indicate that climate change is already pushing many forests toward the tipping point — where a forest can suddenly go from being a climate ally to actually producing carbon. Being rapidly exposed to higher temperatures forests have never experienced and are not evolutionarily prepared for hampers growth and makes trees more vulnerable to stress. Projections suggest that the tipping point for many forests may be reached as early as 2050.   read more

The NBA on Thursday dealt a blow to the economy and prestige of North Carolina by pulling February’s All-Star Game to protest a state law that eliminated anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people. The move was among the most prominent consequences since the law was passed in March. The decision by the NBA comes after its commissioner, Adam Silver, had strongly hinted that such a move might be coming and again thrusts the league into the middle of social issues now gripping the nation.   read more

“I just started to search for gun sales, and sure enough, Facebook was full of them,” said one user. Some try to skirt the ban by advertising other products for sale, such as baby powder, next to rifles. Other users did little to hide their intentions. A post on a firearms Facebook page recommended that those who wanted to sell guns or ammunition write the caliber and model numbers using code words, rely on external sites to share photos and make deals through private messages.   read more

The American Diabetes Assn has been working to change Army policy since 2010, and says numerous families across the nation are affected. "The U.S. Army's policy is discriminatory and completely out of step with current practices relating to caring for children with diabetes," ADA's Hagan said. "This discriminatory policy provides little choice for parents who are effectively forced to pull their children out of the U.S. Army's high-quality programs or face jeopardizing their lives," said Smith.   read more

The ruling came under the wire of a July 20 deadline that the U.S. Supreme Court set with the Nov. 8 presidential election in mind, allowing time for a lower court to propose changes to the law. "...The district court did not clearly err in determining that SB 14 has a discriminatory effect on minorities' voting rights in violation of...the Voting Rights Act. ...[W]e remand for a consideration of the appropriate remedy in light of the impending general election," Judge Haynes wrote.   read more

Government lawyers argued that moving beyond two gender choices for passports would upend officials' ability to verify identities and backgrounds because of reliance on drivers' licenses and birth certificates issued by states offering only male and female gender options. Judge Jackson appeared exasperated at times, saying the State Dept. needs to catch up to a new era in which gender identification is not as clear as it was in the past. "A lot of things are changing in our world," Jackson said.   read more

Part of the problem is that overconfidence in the technology causes people to think they can check out. Operators — an airline pilot, a train engineer or car driver — can lose awareness of their environment when they turn control over to automation. "Drivers in these quasi- and partial modes of automation are a disaster in the making," Cummings said. "If you have to rely on the human to see something and take action in anything less than several seconds, you are going to have an accident..."   read more

Slahi was subjected to interrogation approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Slahi wrote of extensive sleep deprivation, beatings, dousings with ice water, and of being shackled in a freezing cell. He denied involvement with terrorism and was never charged with a crime. He was accused of working on chemical and biological weapons for Al Qaeda, but documents showed that intelligence officials decided he “was probably misidentified” and had merely been a bookkeeper and translator.   read more

HIPAA requires tight security over personal health information. Apps and wearables may not have the same protections. A study looked at 600 of the most commonly used health apps and found that fewer than a third had privacy policies. Many apps connect to third-party websites without users’ knowledge and send data in unencrypted ways that potentially exposed personal information. Many people do not read an app’s privacy policy, leaving them open to having their information used in myriad ways.   read more

Judge Adelman said a “safety net is needed for those voters who cannot obtain qualifying ID with reasonable effort.” He called the option of signing an affidavit “a sensible approach that will both prevent the disenfranchisement of some voters” but also “preserve Wisconsin’s interests in protecting the integrity of its elections.” Wisconsin’s attorney general, Brad Schimel, said in a statement that he was “disappointed with the court’s decision. We will decide the next course of action..."   read more

The companies will spend $403 million to install equipment to control carbon dioxide and other emissions at the refineries. Federal officials say the settlement will improve air quality because the installed equipment will reduce pollutants, including an estimated 47,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually. Leaks, flares and excess emissions from the refineries emit dangerous air pollutants known or suspected to cause cancer, birth defects, and seriously harm the environment, the officials said.   read more

While government recommends people fill their plates with fruits and veggies to help prevent obesity, only a fraction of its subsidies support the production of fresh produce. The vast majority of subsidies go instead to commodity crops that are processed into many of the foods that are linked to the obesity crisis. “The subsidies damage our country’s health and increase the medical costs that will ultimately need to be paid to treat the effects of the obesity epidemic,” said a USPIRG report.   read more

The textbook titled "Mexican American Heritage" is being decried as racist and inaccurate by many of the same advocates who had wanted a broader Mexican-American studies course. "What we have now is a deeply flawed and a deeply offensive textbook," said Celina Moreno. Activists said that, among other things, the book suggests that Mexican culture promotes laziness, and it links Mexican-Americans to immigrants who are not in the country legally.   read more

Jenesis staggered naked and bleeding away from gang members. “She had been raped and shot in the stomach,” Elena recalled. After years of such brutality, the family finally fled. Yet they aren’t safe, in part because of a policy backed by Obama and Mexico to return refugees to the countries from which they fled. Because Americans worry about refugees swarming across our borders, we help pay for Mexico to intercept them and return them home, where they may well be raped or killed.   read more

Philadelphia hospitals will conduct an experiment that asks: When gunshot victims are being rushed to the ER, could paramedics do more to save them by doing less? It's an approach that could change practices at trauma centers across the country. And everyone in Philadelphia could become a study subject, though the biggest effect will probably be in the most violent neighborhoods — poor, mostly black sections where people are skeptical of essentially being experimented on.   read more