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

When Karen Savage and Cherri Foytlin wrote an article about the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill of 2010, they thought it might get a few moments of attention and then fade away. More than three years later, Savage and Foytlin are still defending their article after being sued by a scientific consulting company. The battle is headed to the highest court in Massachusetts. Arguments are scheduled for Friday.   read more

The Supreme Court is set to begin its new term as it ended the last one, down one justice and ideologically deadlocked on a range of issues. The absence of a ninth justice since Antonin Scalia's death in February has hamstrung the court in several cases and forced the justices to look for less contentious issues on which they are less likely to divide by 4-4 votes. It could be several months, at least, before the nation's highest court is again operating at full strength.   read more

The White House rushed Friday to correct a diplomatic blooper after an official transcript listed Jerusalem as part of Israels. The mix-up came in a transcript of President Barack Obama's eulogy at the funeral for former Israeli President Shimon Peres. The White House press office routinely issues transcripts of Obama's speeches and includes the location of the speech at the top. A transcript released shortly after the funeral listed the location as "Jerusalem, Israel."   read more

The FOIA requests that Jeffrey Scudder eventually filed have aimed to uncover not the juicy details of any specific historical event, but the annals of the agency's internal scholarly magazine, Studies in Intelligence. Scudder's latest lawsuit — co-filed with academics Ken Osgood, a history professor the Colorado School of Mines; Hugh Wilford, a history professor California State University; and Mark Stout, who directs Global Security Studies at Johns Hopkins — goes a step farther.   read more

The sprawling encampment that's a living protest against the four-state Dakota Access pipeline has most everything it needs to be self-sustaining — food, firewood, fresh water and shelter. Everything, that is, except permission to be on the federal land in North Dakota. Federal officials say they won't evict the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires camp, due to free speech reasons, even though it's on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land.   read more

When Patriot Coal filed for bankruptcy in 2015 — its second time in three years — environmentalists and regulators were prepared for the company to figure out ways to shunt liabilities and maximize returns. But no one could have envisioned what happened next. Patriot handed over millions of dollars of environmental obligations to a nonprofit company run by a man named Tom Clarke, who owned a chain of nursing homes and a tourist attraction that had fallen behind on its bills.   read more

A federal control board on Friday took over Puerto Rico’s finances and several government agencies for the first time in the U.S. territory’s history in a bid to haul the island out of an acute economic crisis. It ordered Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla to produce a fiscal plan in two weeks and submit weekly and monthly revenue reports that detail how the government is adhering to its budget.   read more

Hackers have targeted the voter registration systems of more than 20 states in recent months, a Homeland Security Department official said Friday. The disclosure comes amid heightened concerns that foreign hackers might undermine voter confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections.   read more

A requirement that edible marijuana products come with a diamond-shaped stamp and the letters T-H-C — not just on the packaging but on the brownies, candies and other edibles themselves — takes effect Saturday in Colorado. The rule referencing marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient was added after complaints that the treats look too much their non-intoxicating counterparts.   read more

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was removed from the bench Friday for defying the U.S. Supreme Court on gay marriage, more than a decade after he was ousted for disobeying a federal order to take down a 2 ½-ton monument to the Ten Commandments. The nine-member Alabama Court of the Judiciary suspended Moore without pay for the remainder of his term. While the court stopped short of outright removing him as they did in 2003, the punishment has the same effect.   read more

The U.S Court of Appeals for the First Circuit shot down a New Hampshire law banning voters from taking selfies with their ballots, finding its limits on free speech worse than the photos’ vote-buying potential. New Hampshire prohibited citizens from photographing and publicizing their marked ballots in 2014, by amending a statute intended to block vote-buying and voter intimidation.   read more

The Drug Enforcement Administration does a poor job overseeing the millions of dollars in payments it distributes to confidential sources, relies on tipsters who operate with minimal oversight or direction and has paid informants who are no longer meant to be used, according to a government watchdog report issued Thursday.   read more

Six scientists who were leaders in past international climate conferences joined with the Universal Ecological Fund in Argentina to release a brief report Thursday, saying that if even more cuts in heat-trapping gases aren’t agreed upon soon, the world will warm by another 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) by around 2050.   read more

A Cambridge University study of British and U.S. police shows a 93% decrease in the number of complaints made against officers when they are using body cameras — pivotal findings that suggest the simple devices could reduce conflicts between police and the public. The idea behind the study is simple: people who are being observed — and know it — change their behavior. Researchers suggested that cameras encourage best behavior on the part of both the officers and the public.   read more

An agency within the Health and Human Services Department issued a rule that bars any nursing home that receives federal funding from requiring that its residents resolve any disputes in arbitration instead of in court. The rule, which would affect nursing homes with 1.5 million residents, promises to deliver major new protections. The new rule came after officials in 16 states and the District of Columbia urged the government to cut off funding to nursing homes that use the clauses.   read more

The Supreme Court is taking up a First Amendment clash over the government’s refusal to register offensive trademarks, a case that could affect the Washington Redskins in their legal fight over the team name. The justices agreed Thursday to hear a dispute involving an Asian-American rock band called the Slants, but they did not act on a separate request to hear the higher-profile Redskins case at the same time.   read more