The nation’s largest police union—the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)—may have been enthralled by Donald Trump’s law-and-order rhetoric and promises to enact “stop and frisk” policies on a national level, but there’s one element of Trump’s strongman actthat’s not sitting well with them: his promise to crackdown on the over 200 sanctuary cities in the United States. Such cities, […]

It looks like the EPA is seeing the writing on the wall. The scuttlebut here is Houston is that this is a “face saving” maneuver, to avoid having to submit to the next administration. “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it plans to voluntarily withdraw a requirement that seven Texas coal-fired power plants reduce pollution,

Nearly 4,000 were killed in Iraq in November. 1,533 of those killed were civilians. The war with the Islamic State militants left at least 5,719 people killed and 1,734 wounded in the last month. The fighting has slowed in Mosul, but the numbers remain high. In October, 5,930 people were killed and 2,463 were wounded. The Iraqi government

OPEC countries reach a deal to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels of oil per day. This amounts to roughly 1% of the oil produced worldwide each day. VIENNA—OPEC representatives reached a landmark deal to reduce oil output, propelling crude prices more than 8% after months of wrangling and market uncertainty about the ability

A UN panel finds that Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention. Julian Assange has renewed his plea to be “set free” after a United Nations panel confirmed its view that the WikiLeaks founder is a victim of arbitrary detention. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention rejected a request by the UK Government to

A change to Rule 41 will allow judges to grant the FBI hacking or surveillance warrants outside of their jurisdictions. This will allow a single judge to grant a warrant allowing the FBI to go after anyone anywhere on the planet. The Obama Administration has massively expanded FBI surveillance and hacking powers with a change to

Lori Clare Kavitz was sentenced to 24 years in prison because she lived with a man who was selling meth. The judge that sentenced her wrote a letter to Obama begging him for clemency for Lori.   When Lori Clare Kavitz’s sons were 3 and 4 years old, she got worried that her husband would start

Trump picks Steve Mnuchin to be Treasury Secretary. One of Mnuchin’s first goals will be to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. President-elect Donald J. Trump’s decision to pick Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs partner, as the next Treasury Secretary is driving hopes on Wall Street that government sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and

Last month, the Taliban seized weapons the US gave to the Afghan army. When the Taliban assaulted the district of Ghorak in Kandahar last month, it seized a number of US-made weapons that were supplied to the Afghan security forces from a base that was overrun. Additionally, a number of Afghan soldiers were killed during

70% of immigrants admitted to the US under Obama’s minor refugee program are actually adults. Brilliant. And unsurprising.  Two years ago the Obama administration sought out to tackle a “crisis” that involved minors seeking out “human smugglers” to help with transportation across the U.S. – Mexico border.  So, with a swipe of the pen, Obama

A 24-year-old man was arrested for refusing to give a police officer his birthdate. The man was collecting signatures so he could run for public office when the police officer approached him and asked for his name and birthdate. The police officer and her superior officer are currently on paid leave. Two Evanston police officers

Trump picks General Mattis to be Secretary of Defense. Mattis will need a waiver from Congress before assuming the role. Current law requires that the Secretary of Defense be retired from the military for at least seven years, Mattis has only been retired for three. Donald Trump on Thursday announced retired Marine Corps Gen. James

Lenna Harding writes the following in an editorial for the Daily News:  This election pointed at many problems related to federalism issues – namely the disparity between election laws from one state to another resulting in unequal access to the voting booth. I am delighted that the Green Party candidate chose to demand a recount

….. is the title of a New York Times article that chronicles the socialist nightmare taking place in the world’s most oil-rich country — Venezuela — its crude oil reserves (~300 billion barrels, worth about $14 trillion at today’s oil price) are 12% larger than No. 2 Saudi Arabia’s (268 billion barrels) and more than 7 times greater

The EPA and the Obama administration set lofty goals for lowering vehicle greenhouse gas emissions back in 2012. Under those terms, US automakers would have until 2025 to double fuel efficiency to 54.5 MPG which would lead to well over $1 trillion is fuel savings over the life of new cars. Of course, the plan would cost manufacturers

You really have to wonder about our political situation when the Senate cannot stop the FBI.  So much for that bipartisan Senate bid to prevent the FBI from gaining expanded hacking powers. Senators Ron Wyden, Chris Coons and Steve Daines have failed to block changes to the US’ criminal procedure rules (specifically, Rule 41) that would let the FBI hack

Residential property now paying 65% of property taxes in Idaho, up from 54% 20 years ago. Residential property owners are now paying 65 percent of the property taxes collected in Idaho, while commercial property owners are paying 27 percent, according to figures presented by Ada County Assessor Bob McQuade at the ATI conference today. That’s

Which is why we need to pursue a separation of school and state.  Officials with the U.S. Department of Education say an Idaho school district violated federal law when it segregated elementary students into single-sex classrooms. Several years ago, Middleton Heights Elementary was among the dozens of public schools targeted by the American Civil Liberties