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

Powerful economic incentives discourage hospitals from reporting doctor abuse, and in many cases, reports are never filed in the first place. But even when they are, they may classify violations in a way that conceals the scope of abuse. The investigation found about 70% more physicians accused of sexual misconduct than the 466 classified as such in the public version of the data bank. To date, no official action has ever been taken by HR against a hospital for failing to report properly.   read more

The inspector general's office said it identified 7,106 offenders over a three-year period who could have been suitable candidates for pretrial diversion. The department spent millions of dollars to imprison offenders who might be suitable for pretrial diversion, the audit found. "By diverting those offenders from traditional court proceedings, the department could have potentially saved millions of tax dollars in prison costs," said Inspector General Michael Horowitz.   read more

The case attracted widespread attention in the tech industry and among legal experts because of its potential privacy implications for the cloud computing business, with implications for internet email and online storage, among other services. Had the U.S. government prevailed, Microsoft and others warned, it would set a dangerous precedent making it increasingly difficult to resist orders from foreign courts demanding data, such as email from human rights activists or political dissidents.   read more

When a certified nursing assistant in Iowa shared a photo online of a nursing home resident with his pants around his ankles, covered in feces, health officials discovered: It wasn’t against the law. “It speaks to the lowest instincts of humankind that you never expect people to do,” said Sen. Grassley. Other states have been more aggressive in pursuing such cases. In Colorado, a volunteer who took a selfie with an 108-year-old resident who was urinating has been charged in juvenile court.   read more

ACLU's Romero said Trump's stands would violate the First, Fourth, Fifth and Eighth Amendment rights of Americans. He said ACLU must "muster all the legal arguments we can to derail and deter [Trump's] patently anti-civil liberties proposals should he become...president. Our institutions...are stronger than the will of one man. But we need to be prepared because the very freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution could come under a sustained attack by a President Trump..."   read more

In a new type of imposter scam, crooks infiltrate companies' or organizations' email systems and send messages purporting to be from the CEOs to employees with urgent instructions to wire money somewhere. Complaints about phony IRS agents was one of fastest-growing complaints last year, according to the new report. "Scammers are always changing their pitches and looking for things that work," said CFA 's Susan Grant. "The IRS phony agent obviously works. It scares the heck out of people."   read more

The panel concluded that the fisheries service "did not give adequate protection to areas of the world's oceans flagged by its own experts as biologically important," according to a summary accompanying the court's decision. "The result is that a meaningful proportion of the world's marine mammal habitat is under-protected," according to the decision. Sonar, used to detect submarines, can injure whales, seals, dolphins and walruses and disrupt their feeding and mating.   read more

"Booking photos—snapped 'in the vulnerable and embarrassing moments immediately after [an individual is] accused, taken into custody, and deprived of most liberties'—fit squarely within this realm of embarrassing and humiliating information," Judge Cook wrote. "A disclosed booking photo casts a long, damaging shadow over the depicted individual." Despite the ruling, mug shots can still be released under a FOIA request if it serves the interests of the public at large.   read more

Overweight people lose a year of life on average and moderately overweight people lose 3 years. The excess risk of premature death is about three times as big for a man who gets fat as for a woman who gets fat. Carrying too much weight is now second to smoking as a cause of premature death in North America and Europe; smoking causes about a quarter of all premature deaths there while being too heavy now causes about 14 to 20 percent of such deaths.   read more

With the 2013 election of Horacio Cartes as Paraguay’s president, Rojas was made Minister of Finance. His tenure there was seen as successful, with Rojas being named Finance Minister of the Year in 2014 for his stewardship of the country’s finances. He was also made chairman of the boards of governors of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Rojas left the ministry in early 2015, saying it was for personal reasons, but more likely because of differences with Cartes over tax reforms.   read more

"Each of the claims the 9/11 families and victims has made against the kingdom of Saudi Arabia enjoys extensive support in the findings of a broad range of investigative documents..." the families said. Sen. Blumenthal said the documents "provide more than enough evidence to raise serious concerns." Added Terry Strada: "There is so much more on the Saudi connection to 9/11 and this is the tip of the iceberg, but you had to get this first. It's the beginning, but I don't think it's the end."   read more

The food industry supports the legislation, which was the result of bipartisan Senate negotiations. But many advocates do not, arguing that many consumers won't be able to read electronic labels and that there aren't enough penalties for companies that don't comply. "If there is an acknowledgement about the right of a consumer to have access to information, why not give them the information in plain and simple English?" asked Welch on the House floor.   read more

Nearly 14 million requests for background checks to purchase a gun were made in the first half of this year - a 25% increase over 2015. More requests have been made in the first half of 2016 than were made in entire years from 1998 through 2008. Texas, among the top states in the nation for gun ownership, notched more than 800,000 requests so far this year. "No matter your politics, there is an overwhelming fear the world is becoming less safe," said retired FBI agent Chuck Joyner.   read more

Eight million drivers engaged in bumping or ramming a vehicle on purpose or getting out of their cars to confront another driver. The most common behavior was purposely tailgating another vehicle. That translates to about 104 million drivers when spread over the national population of motorists. Nearly half of drivers reported yelling at another driver and honking their horn "to show annoyance or anger." About a third of drivers indicated they'd made angry gestures at another driver.   read more

He joined the Foreign Service in 1981 and his first U.S. assignment came in 1983, when he was named cultural attaché at the embassy in Washington. Waldner then served briefly as personal secretary to Foreign Minister Alois Mock before being named in 1988 to lead the Austrian Cultural Institute in New York, a post he held until 1999. Waldner did take time out to work on the successful 1992 and 1998 presidential campaigns of Thomas Klestil.   read more

Sen. Leahy described the provisions as “completely unacceptable” and “misguided.” He deplored what he called an emerging pattern of efforts by the intelligence panels to undermine the oversight board’s independence and authority. “The lesson from Snowden is how critical it is to have democratic debate and oversight of our intelligence community...” said Medine. “Now we have the intelligence committees trying to undercut that and push the intelligence community back into the shadows again.”   read more