President Donald Trump invited the Dodgers to the White House. Many of their fans feared that the team, by accepting, would humiliate themselves and betray the team’s large Latino, Asian and African-American fan base. Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter, along with co-owner Magic Johnson, have proposed a solution. Trump has promised that if he can keep the championship trophy, the Commissioner’s Trophy, he will end all seizures and deportations of immigrants.   read more

This prohibition, which is unique among states that have adopted medical marijuana laws, is being challenged in court by two Libertarian candidates running for office. Claire Ball and Scott Schluter sued Attorney General Lisa Madigan and eight members of the Illinois Board of Elections in federal court, claiming the state’s prohibition on medical cannabis cultivators and dispensaries from making campaign contributions violates their First Amendment rights.   read more

“The process is the most intensive of any check conducted for people seeking admission to the United States,” wrote CAP’s Jawetz and Gude. “It is specially designed to mitigate any threats and helps ensure Americans are not placed in harm’s way.” The ordeal takes a year-and-a-half to two years. “If at any stage in that process there is ever the slightest shadow of a doubt or the slightest whisper of suspicion, they are removed from the process. That is that,” said the U.N.'s Christopher Boian.   read more

U.S. ranking in the report was 28th, down eight spots from last year, due to slightly “less perceived wage equality for similar work,” the report states. In some areas, the U.S. fell even further in the rankings. Measured for political equality, it dropped 18 spots to No. 72. “The number of American women in cabinet-level positions dropped to just 26 percent from 32 percent last year, and only 19 percent of congressional positions are held by women,” ThinkProgress noted.   read more

Seventy-two percent of Americans believe that the country is still in recession, although the Great Recession ended in 2009. Janell Ross at The Washington Post said these numbers may reflect how bad off many people still are financially. “A situation where people’s personal economic circumstances remain either so bad or so reduced from what they were in the run up to the Great Recession that they continue to view the economy through irrationally grim glasses,” she wrote.   read more

Supporters of the laws say the change will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies. But some medical professionals say the new laws don’t go far enough, preferring that birth control be available over the counter, cutting both pharmacists and doctors out of the process. “My basic tenet is there should be nobody between the patient and the pill,” said Dr. Mark DeFrancesco. “I’m afraid we’re going to create a new model that...[will] derail the over-the-counter movement.”   read more

A new report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development says the number of those living without proper housing has gone down every year since 2010. Last year, for example, the number of homeless in the U.S. dropped by 2%, or 11,742 individuals. Homelessness among youth and veterans declined even faster, according to ThinkProgress. Still, the number of homeless exceeds 560,000, with 69% of those people staying in shelters.   read more

In the immediate wake of the attacks, as France declared war on ISIS and sharply escalated its bombing campaign against the terrorist group’s targets in Syria, stock prices of major weapons manufacturers skyrocketed. “The markets could barely wait to start buying,” Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept wrote. “The private-sector industrial prong of the Military and Surveillance State always wins, but especially when the media’s war juices start flowing.”   read more

U.S. law prohibits domestic abusers, drug addicts, fugitives and felons from buying guns, but not suspected terrorists. There are about 700,000 people on the terrorist watch list, and none of them are prohibited from buying a gun as a consequence of being on that list. “The majority of the victims in Paris were shot with Kalashnikov rifles, which are sold at...gun shows across this country. There is simply no excuse for Congress to not close this dangerous loophole,” said Sen. Feinstein.   read more

Experts said the rules don’t go far enough to really impact corporate inversions. For example, in response to the proposed regulations, Pfizer has reportedly begun to structure its purchase so that Allergan would technically be the buyer, even though Pfizer is making the purchase. Such a maneuver would, Pfizer believes, prevent the deal from being classified as an inversion and cause it to fall outside the scope of new federal rules.   read more

Since 1964 the fund has provided money for parks and conservation projects in every county in the U.S. But Bishop's goal is to turn the fund into a gift for oil and gas drillers. His bill not only would gut the LWCF, but would earmark 20% of its revenues to return to the energy industry to help finance oil and gas exploration. It would also severely hamper LWCF’s ability to purchase land and make it nearly impossible to do so in the West, an area particularly attractive to fossil fuel producers.   read more

The former drone operatives see a link between recent terrorist attacks and the program for which they had worked. “We cannot sit silently by and witness tragedies like the attacks in Paris, knowing the devastating effects the drone program has overseas and at home,” they wrote. The killing of innocents in drone strikes has, they say, served as one of the most “devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world.”   read more

The U.S. women’s incarceration rate has climbed steeply, according to the report. “In the U.S., we are not only incarcerating women far more than nearly all other nations, but we are also incarcerating women far more than we have done in the recent past. The sudden growth of incarceration in our country has been staggering; our incarceration rate nearly tripled between 1980 and 1990,” the report said.   read more

According to an investigation by the Tampa Bay Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting, Kids Wish has given out less than 3% of its donations to sick children. The rest has gone to fundraising and salaries to its founder and former president, Mark Breiner. He or his companies have received $4.8 million over the past 10 years from the charity. More than $110 million has gone to professional solicitors. During the same period, the charity gave only $3.3 million to children.   read more

Trying to help fix Healthcare.gov after its shaky rollout, Slavitt tried to create an account for himself, but it didn’t work. He joined CMS in 2014 as Principal Deputy Administrator, having to get an “ethics waiver” from the Obama administration. As he awaits confirmation, Slavitt has taken criticism from Sen. Orrin Hatch for conflicts of interest that his appointment would create. The liberal group Public Citizen also has questioned the appropriateness of the nomination.   read more

Breysse joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University in 1986 and remained there until joining the federal government. His research there included a study on smoking in cars, which found that smoking in autos left twice the levels of secondhand smoke than in bars. He directed a secondhand smoke exposure assessment laboratory at Johns Hopkins and conducted studies in the field around the world.   read more

While stationed in Manila, the embassy began work on an expansion of its office space. During the construction, unexploded ordnance from World War II was found on the construction site. Each time a piece was found, Riley told State magazine, “We thought that would be the last of it but, no, there was always more. . . . Our employees had worked there for more than 60 years and lived there for more than 50 years, unconscious of the potential danger.”   read more