Critics have detailed a number of concerns regarding BLM’s latest rules draft. Among them is a provision that allows drillers to not disclose the chemicals they are using until 30 days after they have begun drilling. Another rule allows drillers to withhold trade secrets without being required to explain their reason for doing so. Observers also note that there is no requirement for well operators to collect and disclose air and water quality data prior to fracking.   Read More

The cyber-attacks, in fact, may have been aimed at learning the identities of Chinese intelligence operatives under surveillance in the U.S. by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), The Washington Post reported. Google technicians discovered that its database containing years of information on surveillance operations had been breached. Included were classified court orders approving surveillance of U.S.–based foreign agents, diplomats and terrorists.   Read More

Four Iraqis claim the contractor helped torture them while providing interrogation services at Abu Ghraib. All of them were ultimately released without being charged with a crime. They allege that CACI subjected them to a variety of torture techniques, including “electric shocks; repeated brutal beatings; sleep deprivation; sensory deprivation; forced nudity; stress positions; sexual assault; mock executions; humiliation; hooding; isolated detention; and prolonged hanging from the limbs.”   Read More

In a major power grab of dubious constitutionality, the U.S. military last week claimed for itself the power to act unilaterally—without the authorization of the President—in case of “civil disturbances,” threatening a 200-year-old system that strictly forbids the military from becoming involved in civilian law enforcement. Seemingly innocuous in its brevity and simplicity, the new rule's chief danger lies in its vagueness.   Read More

The study authors examined 11,944 abstracts published in peer reviewed science journals from 1991 to 2011 that included the words “Global Climate Change” or “Global Warming.” Categorizing each abstract according to its apparent position on global warming, they found that 66.4% expressed no position, 32.4% expressed acceptance, 0.7% rejection, and 0.3% uncertainty as to the cause of warming.   Read More

Monsanto sees the international market as the source of enormous potential profit, if only foreign governments would let Monsanto make inroads into their agricultural economies. And, in a major example of corporate welfare, the State Department has marshaled its resources to lobby for Monsanto.   Read More

The reason that the IRS has instead pursued the small outfits is because many don’t have legal counsel and therefore make for an easier target, Chris Ashby, a lawyer to conservative groups, told the Times. “The big groups are generally well-advised, lawyered up,” he said. “Their tax forms are artfully drawn.”   Read More

In a news conference on Tuesday, Holder defended the spying, claiming that it was done in response to one of “the top two or three most serious leaks that I’ve ever seen.” He also claimed that he was not involved in the case and shifted the blame onto his deputy, James M. Cole. For his part, Cole defended his own actions by saying that the records “have been closely held and reviewed solely for the purposes of this ongoing criminal investigation.”   Read More

Despite a federal appeals court ruling that government snooping on emails requires a search warrant, the FBI and other federal law enforcers regularly ignore this constitutional mandate, according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act. At the same time that it acts as if it has the authority to violate the privacy of citizens’ emails, the FBI is seeking Congressional authorization for its unlawful activities.   Read More

The President did not, however, cancel an April 13, 2006, memo regarding the 2006 revision of the Army Field Manual and its controversial Appendix M on interrogation. That memo justifies the use of isolation, sleep deprivation, and forms of sensory deprivation that have been denounced as torture or abuse by a number of human rights and legal groups—and which sparked the ongoing hunger strike at Guantánamo.   Read More

At least eight men involved in the New York scheme were indicted by a federal prosecutor, including their suspected ringleader, who was killed in the Dominican Republic last month. Local authorities say the man, Alberto Yusi Lajud-Peña, was gunned down by others involved in the robberies over how to divvy up the stolen money. The “cashers” were allowed to keep 20% of the haul. Authorities have not yet revealed who they think are the masterminds of the international ATM scheme.   Read More

U.S. officials have ordered the company behind a new type of plastic handgun that uses 3D printers to remove its designs from the Internet. But that likely won’t stop the distribution of the information. Defense Distributed, which created the single-shot “Liberator” weapon, put up the designs on its website—which were downloaded 100,000 times in just two days.   Read More

Gallup’s annual Economy and Finance survey, conducted April 4-14, found that only 52% of Americans currently are playing the market. That’s the lowest rate since at least 1998, when Gallup began tracking stock ownership. Even that figure is deceptive because about half of Americans who do own stock do so only through pension funds, mutual funds and other accounts they don’t control.   Read More

About 66% of eligible blacks voted in the 2012 election, compared with 64% of eligible whites. Blacks overtook whites because 1.8 million more African-Americans voted in 2012 than 2008, while the number of white voters dropped by two million, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Last year, African-Americans overwhelmingly voted for President Barack Obama, with 93% supporting his reelection.   Read More

Save the Children blames some of the problem on babies being born too early in the U.S., where the preterm birth rate (1 in 8 births) is one of the highest in the industrialized world. Another contributing factor is teen births. The U.S. has the highest teenage birth rate of any industrialized country. “Teenage mothers in the U.S. tend to be poorer, less educated, and receive less prenatal care than older mothers."   Read More

Less than 1% of the 26,000 military sexual assaults in 2012 have, to date, resulted in convictions. Of special note in the Pentagon report is the fact that only 38% of military servicewomen who reported their sexual assault to superiors did not suffer retaliation for having done so.   Read More