The need for strong regulations to protect our drinking water was made shockingly clear when it was revealed that back-room politicking by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R) resulted in a lead contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, that poisoned as many as 8,000 children and countless adults. After the news of that broke, our Republican legislators in Congress fought tooth and nail against having to shell out emergency funds for the largely black and impoverished city of Flint- which still hasn’t received an aid bill from Congress. But now that a water source that is used by the House has been found to have minor lead contamination, the hypocrites are falling over themselves to pass new water safety regulations.

A bipartisan group of sixty one representatives have sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency demanding that they increase their water protection standards. The Lead and Copper Rule currently regulates how much lead needs to be detected before action must be taken, with a threshold of 10% of homes showing 15 parts per billion increase. These standards were laid down in 1991 using the “best available science” at the time, but have not been updated since. Both the World Health Organization and European Union Council Directive recommend taking action at 10 parts per billion.

Dan Kildee (D-MI) declared that “Congress has so far failed to act on Flint aid and now some Members of Congress have had their own water shut off due to high lead levels in their Washington offices… Every American deserves to have access to safe drinking water. America is the richest and most prosperous country in the world — we can afford to provide safe drinking water to our citizens.”

Veterans’ groups are infuriated with the National Rifle Association over a pro-Trump, anti-Hillary ad that invokes the lives tragically lost in the September 11, 2012 terror attack on the American embassy complex in Benghazi, Libya. Slamming the lobby of blood profiteers for “using our dead to score political points,” veterans groups made clear once again that they are enormously frustrated with Donald Trump’s insistence on wrapping himself in the flag and using our veterans to score some cheap nationalist points.

“We fought for everybody’s First Amendment rights and everything, but we don’t want any candidate using our dead to score political points” said Joe Davis, a Veterans of Foreign Wars national spokesman. VoteVets.org immediately issued a statement saying “This ad should be taken down immediately. It is insensitive to those buried at the cemetery — most, if not all, of whom died before Benghazi, and many of whom may not have been NRA supporters. Further, it violates Veterans Affairs policy. It should be taken down.”

The NRA and the Trump campaign have ignored all requests for comment and refuse to take down the clip. The ad features a survivor of the attacks, Mark Geist, saying “Hillary as President? No thanks. I served in Benghazi. My friends didn’t make it. They did their part. Do yours.” It’s a disgusting – and illegal – use of our dead warriors for a cheap and baseless political attack against one of our nation’s most dedicated public servants.

The Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration demanded that the footage be cut, as they have not received or approved any filming requests. “NCA did not receive a request from the NRA to film the subject advertisement. If we had received such a request, we would have denied it based on the partisan content. Partisan activities are prohibited on national cemetery grounds as they are not compatible with preserving the dignity and tranquility of the national cemeteries as national shrines.”

It’s hard to fully comprehend, but in this day and age, America’s most notorious white supremacy group, the Ku Klux Klan, is having a renaissance. A new report by the Associated Press details how one of the blackest stains on American history is still alive and thriving. Adapting and rebranding themselves for the modern era, the omnipresent terrorists are resurging with the rise of Donald Trump to the Republican presidential nominee, focusing on a more publicly palatable anti-immigration message rather than the fringe calls for genocide. “You know, we began 40 years ago saying we need to build a wall,” said Thomas Robb, leader of the Arkansas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Robb’s chapter is one of the many Klan groups seeking to reclaim the influence they once wielded, renaming themselves the Knights Party USA. One hundred and fifty years later, Southern nights are still illuminated by burning crosses and swastikas, but this time on private property, away from the public eye. Membership flourishes as anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment grows and Klan leaders are emboldened by a growing conviction “that U.S. politics are going their way, as a nationalist, us-against-them mentality deepens across the nation.”

Their new approach includes embracing the internet and the operational reach it offers, allowing members to join and purchase their trademark hoods online. They are reportedly turning to a new emphasis on toning down the horrific violence of the Civil Rights era to try to appear to the mainstream public instead of just the social dregs of disaffected racists, and in response to new federal hate crime laws that put perpetrators in jail years after their crimes were committed.

In the latest in a seemingly endless series of stories about Trump’s philanthropic misconduct, it appears that the narcissistic real estate mogul used $12,000 of charity money to make a personal purchase. And not just any self-indulgent luxury – he spent the money to buy a signed football helmet and jersey belonging to one-hit wonder quarterback Tim Tebow from his time with the Denver Broncos.

“The Donald giveth, and The Donald payeth. Blessed be the name of The Donald!” cried a far too effusive the Palm Beach Daily News of the purchase. Perpetually stingy, Trump was happy to accept the adulation but not so willing to actually pay with his own money. The Washington Post reports that instead, “the Susan G. Komen organization — the breast-cancer nonprofit that hosted the party — got a $12,000 payment from another nonprofit, the Donald J. Trump Foundation.” A spokeswoman for the Komen organization said Trump has never sent them any money.

A cursory examination of the Donald Trump Foundation records paints a very revealing picture of what kind of a selfish miser Trump is. Trump’s “charity” is mostly paid for by other people. Trump hadn’t donated to his own foundation for three years before the Tebow purchase; he’s only given $3.7 million total to the charity with his own name on it in total. Vince McMahon has given more money to the foundation that the cheapskate Trump has.