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  • Trump Deports JD Vance and His Wife

    Tuesday, April 29, 2025
    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
  • Inspector General Report Details Dysfunction in Patent and Trademark Office

    Monday, April 20, 2015
    Auditors found that nearly all examiners are graded “above average” on performance evaluations, entitling them to bonuses averaging more than $6,000 per year. The report also outlined “patent mortgaging,” a practice in which examiners submit incomplete work to gain credit. This is supposed to be treated as misconduct, but often isn’t, the inspector general found. Another practice, “end-loading,” is when examiners wait until the end of a quarter to submit reports.   read more
  • Lawsuit against Police-Private Probation Revenue Enhancer Highlights Exploitation of Poor

    Monday, April 20, 2015
    One of the plaintiffs, Abel Edwards, was fined $500 by Judge Joshua C. Bell for burning leaves in his front yard. That fine by itself appears to be steep for such an offense, but after Red Hills’ fees were added on, it totaled more than $1,000. The probation company demanded $250 up front and had Edwards was kept in jail several days until a friend came up with the money.   read more
  • Oil Platform has been Leaking into Gulf of Mexico for more than 10 Years

    Sunday, April 19, 2015
    When Hurricane Ivan moved through the Gulf in September 2004, it caused a landslide that buried wells owned by Taylor Energy Co. Ever since then, those wells have been steadily sending a ribbon of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. While Taylor has claimed the leak has released as little as 4 gallons of crude a day into the Gulf, and the Coast Guard has spotted sheens averaging 84 gallons a day, some estimates of the total leak are far larger, running as high as 900 gallons a day.   read more
  • Montana First State in Nation to Protect Reporters’ Electronic Data Held by Providers

    Sunday, April 19, 2015
    The Media Confidentiality Act, signed into law April 9, expands the state’s shield law by closing a loophole that allowed state and local governments to contact Internet service providers and social media sites to obtain reporters’ emails, notes and other confidential information. The new law was supported by nearly all of the state’s lawmakers, passing the Montana House by a vote of 90-7 and the Senate by 47-1.   read more
  • African-American Mothers far less likely to Breastfeed than other Groups

    Sunday, April 19, 2015
    Part of the reason for African-Americans’ lower breastfeeding rate has to do with the inability of many in that group to work in situations where it’s easy to breastfeed. “These are common barriers to breastfeeding because you can’t access jobs where you might have a maternity leave, or can negotiate a private space to pump, or feel you are able to nurse at work,” said Monique Sims-Harper, director of A More Excellent Way Health Improvement Organization.   read more
  • 14-Year-Old Charged with Felony Hacking for Entering Password to Insert Prank Photo on Teacher’s Computer

    Sunday, April 19, 2015
    The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office charged Domanik Green, an eighth-grader at Paul R. Smith Middle School in the town of Holiday, with an offense against a computer system and unauthorized access, a felony, after Green accessed the system on March 31 with a password he’d seen the teacher type in. Green then substituted the teacher’s screen background with a picture of two men kissing.   read more
  • E-Cigarette Smoking Among U.S. Teens Triples While Tobacco Use Plunges

    Sunday, April 19, 2015
    A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that use of e-cigarettes among middle school and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014. “This is a really bad thing,” CDC Director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, told The New York Times, noting that research had found that nicotine harms the developing brain. “This is another generation being hooked by the tobacco industry. It makes me angry.”   read more
  • African-Americans Targeted for Arrest by Grand Rapids Police Using “No Trespass Letters”

    Saturday, April 18, 2015
    Police are able “to stop and search people immediately based on nothing more than a gut reaction to the way someone looks or acts," said Salon. “Grand Rapids police are riding roughshod over the Bill of Rights by using these letters as a blank check to arrest anyone they don’t believe ‘belongs’ in a neighborhood. Any one of us who pulls into a gas station in Grand Rapids to check a map or make a phone call could be arrested under the GRPD’s illegal policy," said the ACLU.   read more
  • Kansas Passes Restrictive Welfare Law Seen as Mean-Spirited, Punitive

    Saturday, April 18, 2015
    The many provisions of HB 2258 include a long list of ways welfare recipients cannot spend their assistance money. These include such questionable provisions as telling benefit recipients in land-locked Kansas that they can’t take cruises. They’re also forbidden from spending TANF money at movie theaters, swimming pools and massage parlors. That there’s no evidence that any significant number of benefit recipients spend money this way doesn’t appear to matter to Kansas politicians.   read more
  • Private Prison Industry Spends Millions Lobbying Congress to Maintain Immigrant “Bed Mandate” Quotas

    Saturday, April 18, 2015
    The report found that nine of the 10 largest immigrant detention facilities are operated by for-profit prison corporations, which operate 62% of immigrant detention beds. Some lawmakers have been adamant about keeping the quota in place, and even objected when DHS released some immigrants from the centers. Two years ago, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) informed ICE that it was “in clear violation of statute” for not maintaining all 34,000 bed spaces following the release of 2,000 individuals.   read more
  • Two North Carolina Judges Resigned rather than Perform Same-Sex Marriages; Now they’re Suing

    Saturday, April 18, 2015
    Two North Carolina judges who resigned rather than perform same-sex marriages want their old jobs back—and still want to be allowed to decline performing weddings they say are at odds with their religious beliefs. Breedlove and Holland filed a suit April 6, asking to be restored to their jobs, for back pay and credit toward retirement. But they also want an unspecified “accommodation” that will keep them from having to marry same-sex couples.   read more
  • Did You Hear about the Man who Committed Suicide in Front of U.S. Capitol Carrying “Tax the one percent” Sign?

    Saturday, April 18, 2015
    An Illinois man who killed himself in front of the U.S. Capitol on April 11 was holding a sign that read “Tax the one percent,” according to bystanders. Thornton’s death appeared to make no impression on Congressional leaders. On Wednesday the Republican-led House passed a bill that would eliminate the estate tax, a proposal that would, thanks to exemptions already in place, apply only to—you guessed it—the top 1% of estates.   read more
  • Republican Senate’s First 100 Days: 59 Votes on Energy and Environment; No Laws Signed

    Friday, April 17, 2015
    As promised, Republicans used their new majority power in the U.S. Senate during the start of the year to focus on energy as well as environmental legislation. What do they have to show for it? Not a single law signed by President Barack Obama. By the end of its first 100 days, the Senate had voted 59 times on energy/environmental bills. Of the Senate’s votes, 44% were on Keystone, plus efforts to block action to reduce carbon pollution and proposals to sell America’s public lands.   read more
  • Is it Really a Good Idea to put one Gas Pipeline near an Old Nuclear Power Plant and another Next to a Major Art Museum?

    Friday, April 17, 2015
    One engineer with years of experience in nuclear safety is concerned about the pipeline’s placement. “I’ve had over 45 years of nuclear experience,” said Paul Blanch. “I have never seen [a situation] that essentially puts 20 million residents at risk, plus the entire economics of the U.S. by making a large area surrounding Indian Point uninhabitable for generations. I’m not an alarmist...but the possibility of a gas line interacting with a plant could easily cause a Fukushima type of release.”   read more
  • 85% of Midwest Facilities Storing 9 Toxic Chemicals have no Public Risk Management Plan

    Friday, April 17, 2015
    The facilities investigated store more than 632 million pounds of toxic and flammable substances. Nine chemicals in particular—including acetone, calcium hypochlorite, fluosilicic acid, methanol, phenol, and xylenes—are considered particularly hazardous. “These chemicals pose serious risks to any communities near facilities that use large amounts,” the report states. Phenol, “one of the most dangerous chemicals” examined by the authors, is on EPA’s List of Extremely Hazardous Substances.   read more
  • With Domestic Oil Production at 27-Year High and Increased Rail Shipments, Rail Accidents are Actually Declining in Frequency

    Friday, April 17, 2015
    Nightly news broadcasts of oil-laden train cars going up in flames in Lac-Mégantic, Canada, two years ago when 47 people were killed, left a stark impression in the minds of many. Anecdotal evidence in the form of exploding railcars may give Americans the impression that the nation’s railways have become dangerous. But statistical information shows that even with increased oil production and rail shipments, railroad accidents have actually decreased.   read more
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