September 27, 2016

Dozens of Democratic and Republican lawmakers are calling on the White House to thwart the Drug Enforcement Administration’s moves to ban kratom, claiming the herbal opioid substitute was rescheduled in violation of procedural law. The lawmakers, organized by Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), asked Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan on Monday to “use your statutory authority” to the delay implementation of the rule change. Fifty-one US Representatives, including 22 Republicans, signed the letter, according to The Huffington Post. Under…

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Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sent a letter to the US Postmaster General on Wednesday requesting information about a domestic surveillance operation that logs information about letters in transit. The spy program, known as “mail covers,” allows postal workers to record the metadata on a letter–including “to” and “from” addresses–without a warrant, and turn the information over to state and federal agencies. A recent investigation by a Portland, Ore. news outlet, KGW, discovered that the government had submitted nearly 90,000 requests over the last decade to…

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