The first explosion occurred on June 13 at a chemical plant in Geismar owned by Williams Cos. Inc. that resulted in two deaths and dozens of injuries. It is not yet known what caused the accident. The plant produces ethylene and propylene. The very next day an explosion at a chemical plant just a few miles away in Donaldsonville, killed one worker and injured eight others.   Read More

Take Miami, Florida, for example. It has a human population of about 409,000. But a factory farm with 2,500 cows can equal Miami’s production of “fertilizer.” Even more concerning is that the waste from really large factory farms, what the government calls “concentrated animal feeding operations” (CAFOs), is not treated. It simply gets dumped—either onto fields as fertilizer or stored in surface ponds that can grow into small lakes.   Read More

A study was convened by the Over-Criminalization Task Force, which discovered the criminal code had grown by 500 new statutes in about 10 years. It now includes about 4,500 crimes. Some of the laws have wound up punishing Americans for actions not considered a serious offense, such as a child who was fined $535 under the migratory bird law for saving a woodpecker from her family’s cat. After a public outcry, the fine was cancelled.   Read More

The ruling means that if either defendant is convicted, he cannot be punished with a bad conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge, and could receive an honorable discharge allowing him to collect veteran benefits. The case also opens the door for other military defense attorneys to use the same argument in sexual assault cases throughout the military.   Read More

Defendants who used “stand your ground” as a defense were more than likely to get off if the victim was black, the newspaper found, following a review of criminal cases involving the notorious statue. In fact, 73% of those who killed a black person faced no penalty at all, while 59% of those who killed a white person got off.   Read More

When a single gray wolf wandered into California two years ago from neighboring Oregon—after an absence of 86 years—it inspired conservationists who hoped that the legally endangered species could reassert a foothold in the state. That optimism was dimmed last week when the Obama administration proposed that the federal government remove protection for the gray wolf in the 42 states, including California, that still have it.   Read More

Federal workers employed in intelligence gathering can tell their complaints to the inspector general of the agency employing them or with members of Congress sitting on the intelligence committees. However, intelligence employees working for private companies like Booz Allen Hamilton (such as Snowden) can be fired by their employers if they report potential abuses to inspectors general.   Read More

Within the White House, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has caused more than 120 new rules to become bottlenecked, the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards complained in a new report. Some rules, such as those proposed by the Department of Energy, have sat for two years awaiting approval—despite a White House mandate adopted during the Bill Clinton years that requires OIRA to act within 90 days of receiving them.   Read More

Under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court on Thursday responded to Howell’s ruling by issuing a new regulation that orders visitors to “maintain suitable order and decorum within the Supreme Court building and grounds.” It also bans “picketing, speech making, marching, holding vigils or religious services and all other like forms of conduct."   Read More

Following the political uproar over rising numbers of rapes and examples of commanders throwing out punishment rulings for sexual assaults, legislation was introduced that would prevent generals and admirals from being able to interfere and overrule in such cases and, instead, leave it solely to military prosecutors to handle.   Read More

Created in 2004 at the suggestion of the 9/11 Commission, the PCLOB didn’t hold its first meeting until 2006, and its first report was so heavily edited by officials in the George W. Bush administration that it resulted in one board member, Democrat Lanny Davis, quitting. The board lacks staffing and full-time members (a product of Medine’s delay as chairman), and doesn’t even have a website yet.   Read More

Justice officials may have decided to discontinue the legal fight because of its potential to draw too much attention to a hotly debated topic. Organizations that have supported the drug’s unrestricted availability are continuing to pressure the government to expand the ruling to include generic versions of Plan B. The controversial pill prevents conception if it is taken within three days of having sexual intercourse.   Read More

Apparently, the legal or national security implications of publishing the remaining slides may have dissuaded the newspapers’ editors from going all in on the major story. “If you saw all the slides you wouldn’t publish them,” the Post’s Barton Gellman posted on Twitter, adding in a second tweet: “I know a few absolutists, but most people would want to defer judgment if they didn’t know the full contents.”   Read More

Booz Allen Hamilton earns 98% of its revenue from government work, including nearly a quarter of all its revenue (or $1.3 billion) through intelligence work. Nearly half of Booz Allen’s 25,000-strong workforce has top secret security clearances—which aren’t always approved by actual government employees. Instead, the process of granting security clearances is often handled by contractors for other contractors.   Read More

Gilbert admitted to shooting Frago, but his legal defense argued that Gilbert’s actions were justified because under Texas law, a person can use deadly force to recover property during a nighttime theft of the commission of “criminal mischief.” Prosecutors insisted the law did not apply to someone trying to force another person into an illegal act such as prostitution. But the jury sided with Gilbert, who avoided a possible life sentence in prison.   Read More

Two days after Chrysler’s unusual pushback, the company did announce the recall of 630,000 Jeep SUVs as the result of transmission and restraint system problems. These recalls include 254,000 Compass and Patriot SUVs from 2010 to 2012 to fix a delay in air bag and seatbelt functioning, and 181,000 Wranglers from 2012 and 2013 relating to leaks in transmission cooler lines.   Read More