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

Cuba was placed on that list in 1982 when it was supporting guerilla movements in South America. That support has long-since ceased, but the Castro administration remained on the list until now, when a 45-day period for Congress to review the plan ended. Cuba is still subject to an economic and travel embargo, so the only practical effect might be that the Havana government might find it easier to do business with U.S. companies in deals that are authorized.   read more

Meat is responsible for the highest water use, mostly because of the amount of feed that goes into an animal before it’s ready for slaughter. It takes 86 gallons of water to produce 1.75 ounces of beef, or just slightly more than the amount of meat in a small McDonald’s hamburger.   read more

The Environmental Integrity Project says it obtained emails revealing that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) privately told members of the Association of Electric Companies of Texas, the state’s electric power trade association, they could release air pollutants above what is acceptable under the federal Clean Air Act during the startup, shutdown, and maintenance of coal plants.   read more

In November 2007, Volz took over as NASA’s associate director for flight programs in its earth science division. He managed all of NASA’s earth science programs, including all the satellites devoted to that field. Volz became the Commerce Department’s assistant administrator in charge of the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) on November 2, 2014.   read more

Sobeck was made deputy assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division in 1999, a position she held for 10 years. Sobeck transferred to the Interior Department in 2009 as deputy assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks and served for a time as acting assistant secretary.   read more

A South Carolina town trying to replace memorials that segregate the war dead into “white” and “colored” soldiers is being stymied by a state law forbidding such monuments from being changed. “Plaintiffs believe the racially segregated plaques of the earlier wars are tragic reflections of former times and no longer legitimate,” the complaint says. Mayor Adams countered: “It’s a huge overreach...to tell a group of great Americans what they can or cannot do with a monument they paid for.”   read more

Many of the baby boomers who contracted the disease did so from blood transfusions administered before testing for Hep C became standard in 1992, while others were infected via intravenous drug use. The CDC recommends that all Americans in this age group be tested for the disease. Hepatitis C can lay dormant for years before symptoms appear, but even if a patient is asymptomatic, he or she can still spread it via blood or even sexual contact.   read more

The pay raises will take effect in January 2016, following a decision by the Obama administration to help those working in 13 urban centers. “The decision comes after years of deliberation, including tentative approval in May 2013. The cities will now receive unique locality-based pay adjustments, rather than being lumped in with the ‘rest of United States’ grouping." The pay for federal jobs in the affected cities is lagging that of jobs in local governments and the private sector.   read more

The low national rate belies the fact that two U.S. states have much higher rates of following through on capital punishment sentences. In Virginia, 110 out of 152 people put on death row were executed, or 72%. Baumgartner attributed Virginia’s high rate to the fact that it limits the time one can appeal a death penalty sentence to one year. The state with the second highest rate is Texas, which executed nearly half of its prisoners to receive the death penalty, 508 out of 1,075, or 47%.   read more

The “suspect”, now in police custody, was nabbed by villagers in the Bamial sector of Pathankot district, just a few kilometres away from the border with Pakistan. The bird, with a Pakistani seal and "Tehsil Shakargarh, district Narowal" stamped on it in Urdu, was spotted by Ramesh Chand of Manwal village who took it to Bamial police station.   read more

Sen. Ernie Chambers, the bill’s sponsor, said he has tried to repeal the death penalty 37 times and wouldn’t have accomplished it this year without conservative votes. The bill was passed by “winning the support of Republican legislators who said they believed capital punishment was inefficient, expensive and out of place with their party’s values, as well as that of lawmakers who cited religious or moral reasons for supporting the repeal,” reported The New York Times.   read more

“What this Court has seen along the way is a hopeful transformation of a school board which was initially tentative, recalcitrant, and partially uninformed regarding the depth of its responsibilities in the desegregation area,” wrote Judge Drell. “That board has now matured..." Officials must comply with adoption of a uniform admissions process and ensuring classrooms are desegregated. It must also change its policies resulting in blacks being suspended or expelled more than whites.   read more

The case involves the shooting of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, a Mexican teenager shot to death by a U.S. Border Patrol agent who opened fire on rock throwers on the other side of the border. An autopsy showed that Rodriguez had been shot about 10 times, mostly in the back. The boy’s family claims the agent, Lonnie Swartz, violated the Fourth and Fifth amendments by using “excessive and unjustified” force against the boy, whom they say was not involved in the rock throwing.   read more

Never before has a U.S. court considered granting legal protection to primates from being “unlawfully detained.” Plaintiff attorney Wise pointed out that detainees have won the right to use habeas corpus to challenge their indefinite detention at Guantanamo Bay—a move opposed by some in legal and government circles. He even compared the fates of the chimps to African Americans held under slavery. “It’s not to protect human beings,” Wise said, referring to the writ. “It’s to protect autonomy.”   read more

It appears that the days are over when most of America wagged a disapproving finger at anyone who dared to engage in sex outside of marriage. As of this decade, 55% of Americans approved of premarital sex, compared with 29% who felt this way in the early 1970s, according to a new study. Among those 18-29 in age, acceptance of premarital sex has only grown. In the ‘70s, 47% of Baby Boomers felt sex before marriage was “not wrong at all.” By the 2010, Millennials’ approval registered at 62%.   read more

The Justice Department has indicted 14 people so far on charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. Conspicuously not mentioned in the indictments was FIFA President Sepp Blatter, whom some call the most powerful person in sports. He might not be out of the woods yet though. One U.S. law enforcement official said that Blatter’s fate would “depend on where the investigation goes from here.” Said acting U.S. Atty. Currie: “I want to be very clear: This is the beginning.”   read more