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Final U.S. infrastructure report offers a sober message
In its fifth and final report on the state of U.S. infrastructure, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has a sober message for elected officials, policy makers, businesses, and general public: unless the United States invests an additional $1.57 billion per year in infrastructure — drinking water and waste water, electricity, airports, seaports and waterways, and surface transportation — between now and 2020, the nation will lose $3.1 trillion in GNP (gross national product), $1.1 trillion in trade, a $3,100 per year drop in personal disposable income, $2.4 trillion in lost consumer spending, and a little over 3.1 million jobs.
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Chechnya president orders crackdown on wizards, sorcerers, and faith healers
Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of Chechnya since 2005, was the driving force behind the Center for Islamic Medicine in Grozny, the largest Islamic folk hospital in Europe, where faith healers perform djinn (Islamic spirits) exorcisms by reading Quranic verses aloud. Kadyrov has changed his mind, and has now banned sorcery in the country, calling its practitioners “charlatans.”
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Courts largely ignore immigration status in lawsuits: study
When a person living in the United States without legal permission or suspected of doing so is involved in a work-related lawsuit, most courts disregard their immigration status when determining remedies, says a study from an expert in labor relations.
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Biden argues new gun laws needed
Vice President Joe Biden told regional law enforcement officials in Philadelphia on Monday that new gun laws are needed if gun violence is to stop. Biden pledged to take his message around the country.
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North Korea’s conducts its third nuclear test
North Korea early Tuesday (EST) conducted its third underground nuclear test. The South Korean Defense Ministry said its sensors indicated the nuclea test had a yield of six to seven kilotons (about half the size of the bomb dropped in Hiroshima in August 1945). In 2006 North Korea tested a nuclear device with a yield smaller than one kiloton. Its second text, in 2009, was with a yield estimated to be between two to six kilotons. The yield of the test is only one measure of North Korea’s nuclear progress. There are two other important measures: the fissile material used and the device design.
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Iran builds 50,000-strong Syrian Alawite militia for post-Assad era
Officers from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, aided by scores of Hezbollah officers, have been busy building, equipping, and training a new Alawite militia which will continue to protect Iranian and Hezbollah interests in Syria following the inevitable fall of Assad. The Assad regime already has a paramilitary militia, the shabiha, or “ghost,” units. The shabiha, together with Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon, has concentrated on killing Sunni civilians in villages and towns deep inside Alawaite-majority areas. Syria and Hezbollah, however, have been worried for a while that, at the end, the loyalty of the shabaiha is to the Syrian Alawaite minority and its interest. Iran and Hezbollah want to create a well-armed militia which will be loyal to the interests of Iran and Hezbollah. The new, 50,000-strong militia, called Jaysh fighters, is a purely sectarian fighting force overseen by Iranian and Hezbollah commanders and separate from the shabiha paramilitaries.
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Mali crisis will be the topic of Thursday House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday, 14 February, entitled, The Crisis in Mali: U.S. Interests and the International Response. “Today in Mali, you have battle-hardened, al-Qaeda-affiliated militants, armed to the teeth with weapons from Qadhafi’s stockpile, seeking safe haven,” said Representative Ed Royce (R-California), the committee chairman.
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Seattle mayor says no to drones
Seattle mayor Mike McGinn has shut down the Seattle Police Department’s drone program before it started. McGinn said the police need to stay focused on “community building.” The announcement came just one day after the city held a public hearing to discuss restrictions to be imposed on drone use by the police departments. Many citizens voiced their concerns about possible violations of privacy.
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Legislation to require Internet privacy baseline not around the corner
The European Union has set tough privacy protection laws and is even considering a proposal which would set even stricter requirements on Internet companies, including allowing users to access and delete data collected on them. The United States, however, has very few privacy protection laws. Some argue this is a good thing.
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Cleanup starts after Mississippi tornado, storms
Emergency officials in Mississippi spent Monday dealing with the damage after a number of storms and a tornado ripped through the southern section of the state, injuring at least sixty people. No deaths were reported.
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Infrastructure sees drop in funding last year
Infrastructure investments in roads, bridges, and power stations have dropped significantly in 2012 as banks struggled to offer long-term debt and governments targeted cost savings. There were hopes that infrastructure spending would boost the world economy in 2012, but funding fell from $159 billion worldwide in 2011 to $99 billion.
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Labor organizes campaign to push GOP to support path to citizenship
Immigration advocates have launched a campaign to push Republicans to agree to legislation which provides a path to citizenship for more than eleven million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States. Several GOP leaders have called for granting illegal immigrants legal status in the United States, but not a path to U.S. citizenship. The AFL-CIO, which is helping in organizing and funding this latest campaign, says that allowing millions of undocumented residents to remain in the country without full citizenship would only perpetuate a caste system which will drag down wages and health benefits for all workers.
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Idaho debating nuclear waste storage
For two decades, the Yucca mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada was viewed as a long-term solution to the growing problem of radioactive waste generated by the 104 active nuclear power generation plants in the United States. One of the Obama administration’s first acts was to “defund” the project, in effect outing an end to it. States such as Texas, New Mexico, and North Carolina have fashioned their own interim solution to the problem of nuclear waste storage, and the governor of Idaho wants his state to follow these states’ example.
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Gang of Eight: DHS secretary to determine if border is secure
Even supporters of immigration reform admit that security along the U.S.-Mexico border should be improved so that legalizing the status of the eleven million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States would not become a magnet for drawing even more undocumented immigrants into the country. How do we know, however, whether the border is secure enough for the legalizing process to begin? A bipartisan group of senators, known as the Gang of Eight, has an idea: under the terms of the bipartisan framework for immigration reform, DHS secretary Janet Napolitano would make the final determination about whether or not the border is secure. Once she makes the determination that the border is secure, the eleven million undocumented immigrants would start on their path to a legal status in the country.
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Florida restricts the use of drones by law enforcement agencies
States continue to restrict the use of drones by law enforcement agencies. Florida police agencies wanted state lawmakers to make a special exception in a bill which bans the use of UAVs by law enforcement, so that drones could be used for crowd control. The bill, however, won the approval of the Senate Community Affairs Committee without the exception.
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More headlines
The long view
Are We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?
Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”
A Brief History of Federal Funding for Basic Science
Biomedical science in the United States is at a crossroads. For 75 years, the federal government has partnered with academic institutions, fueling discoveries that have transformed medicine and saved lives. Recent moves by the Trump administration — including funding cuts and proposed changes to how research support is allocated — now threaten this legacy.
“The Federal Government Is Gone”: Under Trump, the Fight Against Extremist Violence Is Left Up to the States
As President Donald Trump guts the main federal office dedicated to preventing terrorism, states say they’re left to take the lead in spotlighting threats. Some state efforts are robust, others are fledgling, and yet other states are still formalizing strategies for addressing extremism. With the federal government largely retreating from focusing on extremist dangers, prevention advocates say the threat of violent extremism is likely to increase.
The “Invasion” Invention: The Far Right’s Long Legal Battle to Make Immigrants the Enemy
The Trump administration is using the claim that immigrants have “invaded” the country to justify possibly suspending habeas corpus, part of the constitutional right to due process. A faction of the far right has been building this case for years.
Luigi Mangione and the Making of a ‘Terrorist’
Discretion is crucial to the American tradition of criminal law, Jacob Ware and Ania Zolyniak write, noting that “lawmakers enact broader statutes to empower prosecutors to pursue justice while entrusting that they will stay within the confines of their authority and screen out the inevitable “absurd” cases that may arise.” Discretion is also vital to maintaining the legitimacy of the legal system. In the prosecution’s case against Luigi Mangione, they charge, “That discretion was abused.”
How DHS Laid the Groundwork for More Intelligence Abuse
I&A, the lead intelligence unit of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) —long plagued by politicized targeting, permissive rules, and a toxic culture —has undergone a transformation over the last two years. Spencer Reynolds writes that this effort falls short. “Ultimately, Congress must rein in I&A,” he adds.