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

The Senate rejected the amendment 58-38, two votes short of the 60 necessary to move ahead with the measure that would give federal law enforcement direct access to email and text message logs, internet browsing histories and other potentially sensitive online data. Sen. Ron Wyden opposed the amendment and decried what he said was the hypocrisy of defending gun rights while pushing for a measure that would undermine the constitutional prohibition against unlawful search and seizures.   read more

The Obama administration on Wednesday decried a ruling by a federal judge that blocks rules for hydraulic fracturing. The Bureau of Land Management and a coalition of environmental groups say the rules are necessary to protect the environment. The bureau's rules would have required petroleum developers to disclose to regulators the ingredients in the chemical products they use to improve the results of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.   read more

More than 300 people across the nation have been charged with stealing more than $900 million in what federal investigators say is the "largest Medicare fraud takedown in history." The people facing criminal and civil charges of health care fraud include 61 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals. "The wrongdoers that we pursue in these operations seek to use public funds for private enrichment," Lynch said. "They target real people - many of them in need of significant medical care."   read more

Corinthian Colleges, once one of the nation’s largest for-profit education companies, engaged in apparently unlawful practices by paying its recruiters based on how many sales leads they converted into actual students, according to documents unsealed last week. The disclosure may make it easier for former students of the defunct institution to have their federal loans forgiven by helping them establish that they were defrauded or that Corinthian violated federal law while it was operating.   read more

Alternative treatments for pain may include chiropractic and osteopathic manipulation, meditation, massage, yoga, acupuncture and cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps people cope with pain by changing how they think about it. Insurance plans may not cover all of these treatments, or impose strict limits on them. Many state Medicaid programs have only begun to grapple with whether to cover nondrug treatments for pain, or how extensively to do it.   read more

With at least 60 oil producers declaring bankruptcy since 2014, orphaned wells have become potential environmental hazards below ground as well as rusted-out eyesores above. Texas officials predict the number of orphaned wells could soar to 12,000, which would be nearly 25 percent more than what regulators can't keep up with now. Landowners, meanwhile, are growing restless with abandoned pump jacks and damage while drillers warn that crackdowns would only put them out of business faster.   read more

Together, the popularity of the assault rifles and small handguns highlight how the industry has changed in recent decades, as people have increasingly turned to guns for self-defense and less for hunting. Manufacturers have acknowledged the central role that assault rifles and concealed handguns play in their financial health. They also often point out that sales frequently rise after mass shootings like the recent attacks in Paris, San Bernardino, California, and Orlando.   read more

Currie can’t be sure what precise factors have led to the reductions in death rates for poor young Americans, but she has some theories. Public health insurance expanded to cover more children and pregnant women. Research has shown measurable benefits to the children with access to the program: There was less infant mortality; they were hospitalized less often as they grew older; they were more likely to finish high school and attend college; and they earned more money in early adulthood.   read more

Advocates say the measure would make the free sanitary supplies more readily available by putting them in restrooms, instead of nurses' offices, in schools with female students in sixth grade and up. Girls who need pads or tampons now have to scramble to try to get to the nurse and then the restroom in breaks between classes. Rather than do that and risk being late, girls learn to "know the friend in that class who has extra pads," Mitchell, 17, said at a rally before the vote.   read more

The researchers found that after 1972, when much of the truth behind Tuskegee was revealed, mistrust among African-Americans toward the medical profession spiked. They found that use of the health care system fell, and that mortality increased years later. They hypothesized that each factor led to the next: The news caused African-Americans to doubt the health care profession was interested in their well-being, they stopped going to the doctor, and this led to earlier deaths.   read more

Justice Sotomayor delivered a fiery dissent: "It is no secret that people of color are disproportionate victims of this type of scrutiny. This case tells everyone, white and black, guilty and innocent, that an officer can verify your legal status at any time. It says that your body is subject to invasion while courts excuse the violation of your rights. It implies that you are not a citizen of a democracy but the subject of a carceral state, just waiting to be cataloged.”   read more

Physicians who received meals related to Crestor on four or more days prescribed the drug at almost twice the rate of doctors who received no meals. The difference was even more marked for the other drugs. Physicians who received meals prescribed Bystolic at more than 5 times the rate of their uncompensated peers, and Benicar at a rate 4.5 times higher. Steinbrook wrote, "Outright gifts, such as meals, may be legal, but why should physicians either expect or accept them?”   read more

It was one of the biggest nuclear accidents in history, and the U.S. wanted it cleaned up quickly and quietly. The Air Force told the men sent to clean up the spilled radioactive material: “Don’t worry.” “There was no talk about radiation...” said Frank Thompson, who spent days searching the contaminated fields. “They told us it was safe, and we were dumb enough, I guess, to believe them.” Thompson now has cancer in his liver, lung and kidney. Yet the Air Force still insists it was safe.   read more

Organizers said 65,000 people had attended the protest. That would make it the largest demonstration since 1995, when two American Marines and a Navy sailor were arrested over the rape of a 12-year-old girl, an episode that shook the tight military alliance between the United States and Japan and is still bitterly remembered by many Okinawans. “Vicious crimes cannot be tolerated,” the governor of Okinawa, Takeshi Onaga, said at the rally.   read more

To comply with the ruling and obtain a license, Ms. Granatelli would have to spend about $250,000 over four years at an accredited school. Over the years, states across the country have added licensing requirements for a bewildering variety of jobs, requiring months or years of expensive education, along with assessing costly fees. Today, nearly 30% of the American work force needs a license to work, up from about 10% in the 1970s, according to Professor Kleiner, who has studied the issue.   read more

Even before the shooting rampage at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people were already the most likely targets of hate crimes in America, reports the FBI. LGBT people are twice as likely to be targeted as African-Americans, and the rate of hate crimes against them has surpassed that of crimes against Jews. There is a long history of not being treated with respect by law enforcement, social service agencies and the legal system, said Roger Coggan.   read more