Jon Queally Posts

The government might be shut down, but both parties have agreed that the National Security Agency's dragnet surveillance programs will not be impacted by the stoppage. However, fulfilling the requests of citizens or journalists trying to obtain information about the government's activities has been deemed not "an essential service."

Amid the ongoing budget battle and before the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted once again to block funding for Obamacare overnight, the House Rules Committee slipped in a new provision to their stopgap proposal that would give U.S. employers permission to "opt out" of providing preventative care to their female employees, including contraceptives.

As Republican Senator Ted Cruz exhausted himself on the Senate floor overnight in an effort to prove his and his party's steadfast opposition to funding the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, new data made available by the White House shows that state-level insurance exchanges set to open next week will offer premiums that are cheaper than even most forecasts predicted.

Though most Americans might argue that a scientific study on such a self-evident truth was hardly necessary, the American Journal of Medicine on Wednesday has published findings that show countries with lower gun ownership rates are safer than those—with the U.S. being the bloodiest example—where firearms are extremely prevalent and highly unregulated.

Elizabeth O’Bagy, who has been cited as an expert on Syria by numerous media outlets, was employed by the Institute for Study of War in Washington D.C., but has been terminated after it was discovered she did not hold a doctorate from Georgetown University as she had claimed.

The city council of Richmond, California on Wednesday approved a bold plan to use the authority of the municipal government's 'eminent domain' laws to help underwater homeowners.

Asked by Senate Robert Menendez (D-NJ) whether or not language should be inserted in a congressional authorization for an attack on Syria that would prohibit 'U.S. boots on the ground,' U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that would not be good idea. Kerry stammered, and then declared—"in the event Syria imploded, for instance"—that he wouldn't want to take that option "off the table" by inserting such a clause.

In the latest reporting by journalist Glenn Greenwald on the U.S. National Security Agency's international surveillance programs, a news story on a Brazilian news show on Sunday night reported that the agency has used its powers to infiltrate the communication systems of presidents in both Mexio and Brazil.

As a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll shows, support for further U.S. military involvement in Syria—whether called by its real name, "war," or the government's preferred euphemism, "intervention"—stands at a mere 9 percent.

In a fresh angle on the National Security Agency's sweeping surveillance grip on domestic internet communications, the Wall Street Journal—citing current and former officials with "direct knowledge of the work"—reports that the agency has built a much more robust spy network than the agency has previously admitted, powerful enough to reach into "roughly 75% of all U.S. internet traffic" in its hunt for pertinent information.

Calling it both racially discriminatory and unconstitutional, advocates for civil liberties and voting rights responded almost immediately with lawsuits in North Carolina on Monday following Republican Gov. Pat McCrory's signing of a sweeping new law that abbreviates early voting and demands all voters have a picture ID in order to cast a ballot in the state.

Despite clear evidence that he suffered from severe psychosis and mental illness related to his diagnosed schizophrenia, the state of Florida on Monday executed convicted mass murderer John Ferguson by lethal injection.

An exclusive investigative report by Reuters appears to confirm fears held by critics that the vast network of surveillance programs maintained by the National Security Agency is being used not only for countering international terrorism, but also for targeting common criminals within the U.S.

Did the U.S. government or one of its intelligence agencies assist New Zealand in tracking and secretly monitoring a journalist trying to uncover the possibility of war crimes by U.S. and New Zealand military personnel that took place in Afghanistan?

New economic data obtained and analyzed by the Associated Press appears to show that when billionaire financier Warren Buffett says, “There’s class warfare, all right.. and we’re winning," he knows what he's talking about.

While some news outlets are lining up to attend a series of "off the record" media briefings with the Department of Justice, others are balking at the invitation from embattled Attorney General Eric Holder, saying that it would be "inappropriate" to accept the government's conditions of secrecy as they actively report on how the DOJ "secretly" investigates journalistic activities.

Some of the world's wealthiest corporations—utilizing secretive tax havens backed by powerful governments—are siphoning billions of dollars of potential revenue from the very same poor countries that foreign investment is so often said to be helping.

Human and civil rights groups generally responded to Obama's foreign policy speech by saying that though they welcomed the president's decision to directly address long-ignored issues, but there remained enormous problems with his many of his declarations and formulations surrounding these controversial policies.

Champions of equality slammed Democratic members on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday after it succumbed to the pressure of rightwing threats by removing a crucial amendment to the immigration reform package that would have provided inclusion and protection of LGBT members of immigrant and binational families.

Seattle teachers who took a strong and public stance by refusing to administer a "flawed" but mandatory standardized test earlier this school year are celebrating a victory after an announcement by the school district saying the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test will not be given to high school students next year.