According to aides who were present when Trump discussed the issue, but who choose to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, Trump said he was sick of Vance and wanted to fire him. “I wanted him to be my attack dog,” said Trump, “but he appears foolish on television. He dropped the college football trophy. He met with Pope Francis and the next day the pope died. Vance is toxic, and I don’t want him to come near me. He just doesn’t look as good on television as I thought he would.”   read more

A majority of Democrats said they wanted someone pragmatic and willing to compromise, with 53% of Republicans saying they wanted someone ideologically pure. Despite its polarizing effect, the Supreme Court issue does not appear to be a priority for voters surveyed. More Americans think the executive and legislative branches of government wield greater influence than the judiciary, and fewer than 10% thought nominating justices to the high court was a presidential duty most relevant to them.   read more

The NSA defended hiding key details of its process for deciding whether to exploit or disclose software security flaws that make people vulnerable to hackers. The EFF sued the NSA in 2014 for withholding records on the government's handling of newly discovered security flaws not yet fixed by software developers. It had been reported that for two years the government knew about and exploited a security flaw affecting an estimated two-thirds of the world's websites, without disclosing the threat.   read more

An election watchdog filed a complaint Friday with the FEC over a $500,000 donation to a super PAC aiding Marco Rubio from a mystery firm headed by a New York investor. Efforts by good government groups to stem the use of shadowy corporate entities to channel large political donations have been long stymied by the FEC's internal political paralysis. The complaint seeks an investigation into IGX LLC for masking the donation.   read more

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker signed two bills into law on Thursday that block federal funding from Planned Parenthood and could cost the local organization millions of dollars. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin could lose about $7.5 million a year because of the measures, an organization spokeswoman said. Texas, Louisiana other Republican-controlled states have tried to halt funding for the reproductive health organization.   read more

Facebook said it condemns terrorism but will "fight aggressively" against requirements for companies to weaken the security of their systems. "These demands would create a chilling precedent and obstruct companies' efforts to secure their products,"the statement said. Google CEO Sundar Pichai also voiced support for Apple. "Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users' privacy," Pichai wrote, adding that the case "could be a troubling precedent."   read more

The Great Plains states led the nation in healthy sleep, buoyed by South Dakota, where 72 percent of those surveyed said they averaged at least 7 hours nightly. The South and Appalachian states got the least sleep as a region. But Hawaii was the worst individual state, where 56 percent of respondents got the recommended amount of sleep. The report also found that while two-thirds of white people nationally got enough sleep, only about half of blacks, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders did.   read more

When Sen. McConnell said the next president, rather than Obama, should select a successor to Scalia, his words struck a familiar and painful chord with many black voters. “Our president...has been disrespected from day one,” said Carol Richardson. “The words that have been said, the things the Republicans have done they’d have never have done to another president.” Said Rep. G.K. Butterfield: “It’s more than a political motive — it has a smell of racism."   read more

The death toll published by the Observatory, which tracks the war using a network of contacts on the ground, included at least 15 people killed when strikes hit a bakery in the city of al-Shadadi near the border with Iraq on Tuesday. Air raids in at least three other villages killed 15 others on Thursday, including three children, while eight more civilians died in air strikes elsewhere, it said.   read more

"I do not believe handguns belong on a university campus, so this decision has been the greatest challenge of my presidency to date," University of Texas President Gregory Fenves said. Professors protested the law with some saying they feared discussing grades with a pistol-packing student, while others said youths and firearms were a deadly combination. "As a professor, I understand the deep concerns raised by so many. However, as president, I have an obligation to uphold the law," he said.   read more

Written by Rep. Ann Coody, the bill states: "the Legislature hereby affirms that it is the public policy of the State of Oklahoma to make a value judgment favoring childbirth over abortion." Rep. Emily Virgin and Rep. Jason Dunnington asked Coody why the bill did not address sex education. "There is only one sure prevention of pregnancy, and that's not to cause it in the first place," Coody responded.   read more

The report found care at the hospital, which treats 40,000 veterans, had been cut to save money, and described surgical instruments delivered to operating rooms contaminated with blood and bone debris from previous surgeries. The report also alleged a top hospital official was improperly drawing two salaries and had prescribed controlled pain medication to the spouse of the regional director without a valid license. The VA declined to comment directly on the allegations.   read more

NOAA exceeded its authority to regulate fishing, plaintiffs say. Industrial aquaculture in open waters is associated with many serious environmental and health concerns, including the escape of farmed fish into the wild, outcompeting wild fish for habitat, food and mates or intermixing with wild fish and altering their genetics and behaviors; the spread of diseases and parasites from farmed fish to wild fish and other marine life; and pollution flowing through the open pens into natural waters.   read more

Men who had said their sexual functioning had been flagging reported moderate increases in their interest in sex and in their performance, although when it came to erections, a drug like Viagra or Cialis would be more effective, the researchers reported. Those who said they felt blue reported a small improvement in mood. But the drug had no discernible effect on vitality or walking speed in men with those complaints.   read more

Apple CEO Cook responded with a blistering, 1,100-word letter to Apple customers, warning of the “chilling” breach of privacy posed by the government’s demands. He said the order would effectively require it to create a “backdoor” to get around its own safeguards, and Apple vowed to appeal the ruling by next week. “The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe,” Cook said.   read more

The crisis hotline received more than 450,000 calls in 2014, a 40% increase over the previous year. About 1 in 6 calls are redirected to backup centers when the crisis line is overloaded, the report said. Calls went to voicemail at some backup centers, including at least one where staffers apparently were unaware there was a voicemail system. Hotline callers "made numerous complaints of long wait times for responders, being put 'on hold' or calls 'not being put through' to a responder."   read more

Rep. Marsha Blackburn said she'd subpoenaed documents from three groups she said are withholding information. Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, top Democrat on the investigative panel, called the subpoenas unjustifiable and abusive. Schakowsky said Republicans want to build a database of patients, doctors and researchers that would risk their privacy and safety. The subpoenas are "a new low in the Republicans' attack on women's health care," Schakowsky said.   read more