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

While Tillerson's not a diplomat, he has an agenda overseas that doesn't always mesh with the U.S. government. His willingness to cut a deal regardless of the political consequences speaks volumes about Exxon Mobil’s influence. In Iraq, Tillerson and his company outmaneuvered the State Dept, which he has now been nominated by Trump to lead. “[Exxon and Tillerson] are very powerful in the region, and they couldn’t care less about what the State Dept wants to do,” said Atlantic Council's Seznec.   read more

Perry was a harsh critic of Trump, even calling the billionaire businessman a "cancer to conservatism," but later endorsed him. Perry has been a vocal skeptic on climate change and is likely to shift the department away from renewable energy and toward oil and other fossil fuels. Sierra Club's Michael Brune called it "an insult to our functioning democracy. Putting Perry in charge of the Department of Energy is the perfect way to ensure the agency fails at everything it is charged to do."   read more

“The [United] States can invest there in other ways that can actually promote other ideology among the people over there,”Ali Jaber said. “These drones are actually really helping al-Qaida attract people because they are saying, ‘look – the [United] States are killing you. Come join us so we can kill them.'” Ali Jaber said people in his area “do not know anything about the [United] States but the drones.” He says the strikes constitute extrajudicial killings in violation of international law.   read more

With the incoming Trump administration seemingly committed to deporting undocumented individuals, there is worry among immigration advocates that the identifying data collected as part of these driver license programs could be used by federal authorities looking to send people back to their home countries. ICE might have to rely on its subpoena power. Even then, states could refuse to provide the information, thereby forcing the federal government to sue for the driver data.   read more

American students have a math problem. "We're losing ground — a troubling prospect when, in today's knowledge-based economy, the best jobs can go anywhere in the world," said Education Secretary John B. King Jr. The PISA study is the latest to document that American students are underperforming their peers in several Asian nations. "Everything is just going down," said Peggy Carr, acting commissioner at the National Center for Education Statistics.   read more

Concern about police militarization ranges from the NAACP and ACLU to the libertarian Cato Institute. Prof. Kraska said there's nothing to justify most police departments having such equipment. "We don't want local police departments to be incentivized to get the types of equipment that in most cases are a better fit for the war zone," said Koch VP Ruger. Added prof. Kraska: "It just ramps up the probability that this kind of kind of high-end military hardware is going to be misapplied."   read more

Republican lawmakers effectively blocked Obama safety rules aimed at keeping tired truckers off the highway. But there's more coming down the road. American Trucking is pledging to come back next month, when Republicans are in control, and try to block state laws that require additional rest breaks for truckers beyond what federal rules require. The group says there should be one national rule on work hours for interstate truckers and that the extra breaks aren't necessary for safety.   read more

Tillerson’s stake in Russia’s energy industry could create a very blurry line between his interests as an oilman and his role as America’s leading diplomat. “As secretary of state, he would be called upon to negotiate with world leaders like Vladimir Putin,” said prof. Klare. “In these negotiations, one has to wonder what would influence the types of deals he is making. Questions arise over whether his actions would be benefiting his company or the interests of the U.S. and its allies.”   read more

Recording interrogations is a way to know whether police can be confident in the confessions that result. City officials say that 5,000 interrogations have been recorded, and that every detective bureau now has the equipment. But two judges testified that they had seen few cases in which the interrogations — as opposed to the confessions — were recorded. “One can speculate that some old-fashioned detectives may not want to have their methods on video as it might embarrass them,” said Dwyer.   read more

Deaths from synthetic opioids, including illicit fentanyl, rose 73 percent to 9,580. And prescription painkillers took the highest toll, but posted the smallest increase. Abuse of drugs like Oxycontin and Vicodin killed 17,536, an increase of 4 percent. "I don't think we've ever seen anything like this. Certainly not in modern times," said Robert Anderson, who oversees death statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.   read more

An Energy Dept. official called the 74 questions a hit list and said Trump's team appears to be going after top scientists and employees who work on subjects ranging from the Iran nuclear deal to the clean energy mission. Sen. Edward Markey sent a letter to Trump on Friday telling the president-elect that the new Trump administration would violate the law if any of the information being collected is used to punish department employees who carried out legal policy directives.   read more

Inside a book about the Quran, someone had written “lies cover to cover,” drawn a swastika and made a disparaging remark about the Prophet Muhammad. Six more books about Islam and the Quran that had been similarly defaced with racist language and imagery. Authorities say the spate of hate crimes targeting libraries, their books or patrons had rarely seen before. These crimes coincide with a recent FBI report that attacks against American Muslims surged last year.   read more

Business groups note that experts predict negative economic fallout should Trump pursue mass deportation. A study by right-leaning American Action Network found that such a plan could reduce "real GDP by $1 trillion" and cost taxpayers more than $400 billion. Public opinion appears to be on their side. One survey found that 60% of Trump backers said immigrants in the country illegally should be able to stay. A third of Trump supporters said law enforcement should deport all such immigrants.   read more

New Mexico leads the nation with a backlog of 5,000 untested evidence kits from sexual assaults. Audit officer Sarita Nair said the "heartbreaking" statistics reinforce the concerns of sex assault victims who are reluctant to come forward for fear of not being believed. "When we see a kit on a shelf and the reason is a lack of perceived victim credibility, we're just sort of reinforcing those worst fears and we're discouraging people from coming forward — and that just has to stop," she said.   read more

Soaring use of e-cigarettes among young people “is now a major public health concern,” according to the surgeon general. The report from the nation’s highest public-health authority finds that e-cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product among youths, surpassing tobacco cigarettes. E-cigarettes, which turn nicotine into inhalable vapor, can harm developing brains of teenagers who use them and also can create harmful aerosol for people around the user.   read more

An extraordinary breach has emerged between Donald Trump and the national security establishment, with Trump mocking U.S. intelligence assessments that Russia interfered in the election on his behalf. The findings prompted a blistering attack against the intelligence agencies by Trump. “To have the president-elect...simply reject the fact-based narrative that the intelligence community puts together because it conflicts with his a priori assumptions — wow,” said former NSA/CIA chief Hayden.   read more