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

"Already, tens of thousands of people are going without birth control, cancer screenings, HIV tests, and other care. The maternal mortality rate continues to rise. Yet Greg Abbott is hell-bent on chasing this ideological agenda, regardless of how many women it hurts," said Yvonne Gutierrez. Planned Parenthood officials say they serve nearly 11,000 patients through Medicaid and will continue serving them as they fight the state's decision in federal court.   read more

Guiding Santa’s sleigh isn’t the only thing Rudolph and his reindeer friends are responsible for: they also play an important role in slowing down climate change. A team of researchers discovered that grazing reindeer reduce the abundance of tundra shrubs, which increases the level of surface albedo – solar energy reflected by Earth back into space. “The effect reindeer grazing can have on albedo and energy balances is potentially large enough to be regionally important,” said Mariska te Beest.   read more

Beginning in 1997, Insanally served as political adviser to two secretaries general of the Association of Caribbean States. Insanally was sent to London in 2004 as senior trade adviser in Guyana’s High Commission there. He served at the same time as a commercial representative for the Guyana Sugar Corporation. In 2006, he came to Washington as an adviser to the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS).   read more

In the wake of Trump’s election, despite having lost the popular vote by more than any U.S. president in history, Schneiderman urged Obama to shutter the program. Responding to anxiety within the civil-rights community, Homeland Security published a plan Thursday to do just that. Trump’s team almost certainly had been eyeing its revival. “Perhaps we should have put the nail in that coffin many months ago,” rather than risk it falling into the hands of a “dangerous demagogue,” said CCR's Azmy.   read more

The problem, McCaskill said, is that instead of an investigation, settlements are often negotiated for whistleblowers, which allows agency and manager to avoid admitting guilt. Such actions — like settlements by the Justice Dept with big banks — could have a chilling effect on people who want to come forward. This creates "a toxic work environment in which managers feel free to retaliate against legitimate whistleblowers knowing the case will be settled and their jobs will be safe,” she said.   read more

Paraquat has long been controversial because of its use in suicides, since drinking one sip can be lethal. But now U.S. regulators are grappling with research linking paraquat to Parkinson’s disease. Many of the nations that ban paraquat still allow it to be manufactured as long as it is exported. As Europe and China move away from paraquat, its use is rebounding in the U.S. “It’s a poison, and we really shouldn’t be using this as an herbicide in the way we do,” said Dr. Ritz.   read more

“NEW!” Sirchie asserted, describing the kit as an “industry first.” The only problem is that there is nothing new about it except its name. Sirchie’s records show the new kits are little more than a repurposed chemical test that has been used to detect all manner of substances for more than a century. There is, then, no special “design” to the product. And the reliability of the tests for the criminal justice system is exactly as it has always been: limited, and prone to error.   read more

A culture of secrecy and deference to physicians allows many doctors to keep practicing after they've been disciplined for sexual abuse of patients. In the thousands of cases examined, more than half the doctors disciplined for sexual misconduct since 1999 were still licensed to practice. Regulators or lawmakers in at least four states are using the findings to explore how their laws or rules can be improved. Some have already increased consumers' access to information about individual doctors.   read more

Despite widespread outrage over Trump’s proposal for a Muslim registry, President Obama still has not dismantled the model created by his predecessor, George W. Bush. In a Trump administration, the program will be in the hands of a “dangerous demagogue,” Azmy said. “We can never allow our nation to return to the dark days of Japanese internment,” added Schneiderman. “By finally dismantling the NSEERS program now, President Obama can make a repeat of that horror significantly more difficult.”   read more

The ruling marks a partial legal win for a coalition of news organizations that filed a lawsuit over secrecy surrounding lethal injections. Snow's order requires the state to allow execution witnesses to view the entirety of an execution. Under current protocol, executioners are not seen administering the drug. Execution witnesses in the death of Wood were not aware until several days later that he was injected 15 times with the two-drug combination that was supposed to kill him with one dose.   read more

A federal board responsible for protecting Americans against abuses by spy agencies is in disarray just weeks before Trump takes office. The board was revitalized after Edward Snowden's disclosures on the scope of U.S. spying in 2013. It concluded that the NSA's phone surveillance program was illegal. It has been crucial in ensuring a window into the secretive world of intelligence agencies. Sen. Ron Wyden said the panel's role as a government watchdog is "absolutely critical now."   read more

The move puts finishing touches on Obama's environmental legacy while also testing Trump's promise to unleash the nation's untapped energy reserves. The actions were announced in conjunction with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau. The White House said it's confident the president's order will withstand legal challenge and said the language of the statute provides no authority for subsequent presidents to undo permanent withdrawals.   read more

The judge allowed the young people to amend their complaint and move ahead with their constitutional claims "so as to have their day in court," Judge Hill wrote. "The Court takes this action due to the emergent need for coordinated science based action by the State of Washington to address climate change before efforts to do so are too costly and too late." The petitioners can now go to court and argue that the state has violated their rights under the state constitution.   read more

A small town in New Jersey has sued DuPont for $1.1 billion, claiming it dumped more than 100 million lbs. of toxic waste into soil and water near the Delaware River, “a disaster worse than Exxon Valdez” that will take 1,000 years to clean up. The site has been linked to cancer clusters in the area. Thousands of New Jersey residents have sued DuPont for contaminating their drinking water. One such case was settled in 1993 for almost $40 million. In another case, DuPont paid $800 per household.   read more

"I think we are watching a major political climate change concerning capital punishment and it's reflected among reduced death sentences across the country," said DPIC's Dunham. "As fewer states use the death penalty and as it's used more sparingly in the states that do, we can expect long-term numbers to remain low and perhaps continue to drop." On the Supreme Court, only Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer have questioned the constitutionality of the death penalty.   read more

Salem Al Sabah, Kuwait's ambassador to the U.S., switched the event from the Four Seasons. The move to Trump's $200-million renovation of the Old Post Office Pavilion could reinforce questions raised about the incoming president's possible conflicts of interest. House Democrats already have warned that they'll make the splashy hotel a headache for Trump if he doesn't dump his ownership stake before taking office Jan. 20. Trump has a six-decade lease on the property.   read more