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

Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and other banks have profited for years by arranging short-term loans of stock in Danish companies, a maneuver that has deprived Denmark of substantial tax revenues. With the banks’ help, stock owners avoid paying Danish authorities the dividend taxes they would otherwise owe. The lost revenue is significant: It equals roughly 1.1% of the budget deficit of the Danish government last year, or about 70 Danish crowns ($10) for each resident.   read more

State actions are forcing companies to locate heirs and pay them the money they are owed. The laws follow years-long audits and multi-state investigations of the top 40 insurance companies that revealed many of them held on to benefits, even when they knew the person insured had died. "This is something that shocked me," said Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs, whose office pushed for legislation. "We think it's important that the last wishes of the deceased are honored."   read more

Hawaii is a national leader in rooftop solar power, but despite the state's ambitious goal of using only renewable energy by 2045, people are being shut out of solar incentive programs because of limits set by the state. The cap likely will be reached on Oahu — the state's most populated island — by the end of summer, experts say. "Folks have gone out of business," Reed said. "There's some walking zombie companies that are barely squeaking along."   read more

The NSA argues the claims are implausible speculation about a program that may never have existed. "These plaintiffs allege willful, intentional, unlawful conduct in violation of constitutional rights by our elected representatives at the highest levels and by our government," Judge Shelby said. Former Mayor Rocky Anderson said he confirmed the spying program with a source who worked for the NSA during the Olympics. "They have not denied these allegations," he said.   read more

Critics argue the new framework, which comes into force Aug. 1, doesn't go far enough, that consumer protections are not strong enough and that the possibility of blanket surveillance from U.S. agencies remains. Concerns over data transfers had been stoked by the spying revelations made by Edward Snowden. Snowden's revelations prompted the complaint to the court from Max Schrems, an Austrian law student. "This deal is bad for users, which will not enjoy proper privacy protections..." he said.   read more

“Every day, some Americans are having every penny in their paychecks garnished,” Cummings said. “Congress should not sit on the sidelines and watch our constituents be kept in a cycle of poverty.” “It really does put people into complete turmoil,” said Martha Bergmark, executive director of the nonprofit Voices for Civil Justice. “It’s a rolling disaster” with potential consequences in every aspect of a low-income debtor’s life, she said.   read more

Bucher said she received about 50 complaints, including threats of violence, from people who don't want to vote in a mosque. "If we are going to use places of worship as polling places, we should not discriminate," Deutch said. "People of religion need to understand that we all have a common enemy -- those who do violent acts in the name of religion," said CAIR's Omar Saleh. "...By removing the polling place you let the terrorists win. They want to instill fear and this is one way to do it."   read more

Marlow said the bill has been a model for legislation in other states. "Remember where we are right now," he said. "A private employer can say 'I want to see your Facebook account or you're fired.' It happens all the time. Google it. There are hundreds of cases; not just employees or potential employees, but students, tenants who are required by landlords to hand over their passwords. Social media has no First Amendment protection."   read more

At UT Austin, faculty have been especially vocal against the new law. Their lawsuit was filed assuming UT professors would be able to keep guns out of their offices. The professors want the right to keep them out of their classrooms, too, said attorney Renea Hicks. "The challenge...was in the ability to exercise the option to keep guns out of the classroom," she said. "The issue is...Do individual professors have a right to exclude guns from the classroom?"   read more

“Absent a search warrant,” wrote the judge, “the government may not turn a citizen’s cellphone into a tracking device.” Lawyer Nathan Wessler said the ruling was the first by a federal judge to suppress evidence obtained through the warrantless use of a cell-site simulator. “A federal court has finally held the authorities to account,” Wessler said, adding that the opinion “strongly reinforces the strength of our constitutional privacy rights in the digital age.”   read more

"FOIA has become a tool of secrecy," Cullier said. "Agencies are gaming the system, hiding information from the public, like information on unsafe drinking water, and unnecessary spending. The Obama administration has set new records on secrecy. They are stamping 'No' more frequently, even as they process requests faster. Seventy-seven percent of the time, people are told 'No,' or that the government can't find it."   read more

In the U.S., officials have derided “inversion deals,” which allow a U.S. company to move its headquarters overseas to cut its tax bills. In Ireland, they are celebrating them. The Irish government Tuesday revised the country’s economic growth rate in 2015 to 26.3% from a preliminary estimate of 7.8%. Ireland’s economy has been on the upswing since the country repaid its bailout, and at play was the magic of those inversion deals and other sleights of finance.   read more

In a harshly worded opinion, Judge Pechman said the state is not taking "all of the steps necessary to protect the rights of some of our most vulnerable citizens." She wrote: "The people of Washington deserve to have their mental health needs and the needs of their spouses, parents, children, and friends attended to with the same urgency and dignity our society expects hospitals to respond with when presented with a broken bone or a cancerous tumor."   read more

The lawsuit, according to industry and legal experts, is the first of its kind to go to trial in the U.S., and its outcome could help shape future fights over coal ash ponds and the extent to which certain federal regulations apply. Whichever way he rules, experts said, Gibney's decision is likely to be appealed. But the case could lead to a definitive ruling that affects coal ash disposal around the country. "This has Supreme Court written all over it," said Professor Patrick Parenteau.   read more

While some deported veterans believe they earned citizenship by signing up for military service, others were misinformed. "That's one of the greatest tragedies of this. People didn't realize that they weren't already a citizen," Pasquarella said. "I think that the fact that a veteran who serves in our armed forces and goes to fight our wars could come home from service and then be deported is news to most Americans. I think most Americans would be shocked to learn that that is happening."   read more

Eight inmates were attacked by gang members who jumped out of a closet and beat and stabbed them, some of them as many as 18 times. They claim that CCA hid its "cruel and unusual punishments" from the state, despite repeated lawsuits against CCA over the year. The Associated Press reported in 2013 that CCA had falsified reports to hide understaffing, in violation of a court order and its $29 million annual contract with the state.   read more