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

Coal companies and officials from 14 states filed a lawsuit to stop the EPA from adopting its plan to limit the production of greenhouse gases from power plants. “But EPA has not yet issued a final rule," wrote Judge Brett Kavanaugh in his opinion. "It has issued only a proposed rule. Petitioners nonetheless ask the court to jump into the fray now. They want us to do something that they candidly acknowledge we have never done before: review the legality of a proposed rule.”   read more

Most people know Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and perhaps Bernie Sanders. Those who consider themselves savvy political observers might also be proud that they know Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee. But to be a true political junkie, you should know of a few others hoping to win the White House next year. Such as performance artist Vermin Supreme. He’s trying to promote “zombie apocalypse awareness” and promises to give every American a free pony.   read more

“The new National Water Center will help us create a safer, more secure, weather-ready nation,” said Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. "Measuring, managing, and planning for water is complex, and the need for a more integrated approach has never been greater. Through this center, we will work with our partners in the federal government, community leaders nationwide, and the University of Alabama to deliver solutions to one of our most pressing environmental challenges.”   read more

A Reuters investigation has shown that Peabody does not have the financial resources to self-bond. That means if the world’s largest private coal company goes belly up, the federal government would have to step in and help pay to clean up Peabody’s mines, which would cost about $1.38 billion. Peabody has not filed for bankruptcy, but posted losses of $700 million last year. This week it announced it will soon let go of 250 employees and shut down two of its operations in Indiana and Wyoming.   read more

A new study has found that some Medicare Advantage plans make their patients seem sicker than they are in order to overbill the federal government to the tune of $2 billion a year. Enrollees have 6% to 16% higher diagnosis-based risk scores than they would have had if they were in traditional Medicare. As a result, the plans are more profitable for the insurance companies and the extra money allows them to offer more benefits, making them more attractive than regular Medicare.   read more

Sen Chuck Grassley said there were “serious questions” about the agency's leadership, including nepotism allegations, punishment of whistleblowers and possibly mishandling of funds. The senator said he would continue to investigate the Marshal Service despite Hylton’s departure. His actions prompted the Justice Department Inspector General to open its own investigation last month. The agency's surveillance methods, which have swept up Americans' phone calls, have also been under scrutiny.   read more

“The lawsuit, which seeks no monetary damages, is described by the [suit] as an attempt to break through the secrecy surrounding drone strikes," said the Times. The plaintiffs referenced President Obama’s recent revelation that a U.S. strike in Pakistan had accidentally killed an American and an Italian hostage. “The president has now admitted to killing innocent Americans and Italians with drones," says the suit. "Why are the bereaved families of innocent Yemenis less entitled to the truth?”   read more

About 55,000 Chinese took the SAT in 2014. The total “reflects an increasingly international view of education for Chinese young people, not to mention their parents.” The test is so popular in China that new anti-cheating measures have been instituted. In recent weeks, 23 students were arrested for cheating, some of whom used transmission devices to get answers remotely. To catch them, teachers have been using silent drones to fly around the classrooms monitoring transmission signals   read more

The North Carolina legislature has overridden a veto of an "ag-gag" law that will allow businesses to sue employees who report illegal or unethical corporate behavior. Republican Governor Pat McCrory vetoed the bill that provided for businesses to pursue civil charges against employees who photograph, shoot video or steal data or documents, even if the intent is to expose wrongdoing. McCrory said the legislation would discourage employees who witness illegal activity from reporting it.   read more

The promise of conservative tax policies—that tax cuts would produce more revenue for states because more people would be working—has not panned out as some Republican politicians had hoped, leaving them confronted with state budget gaps and tough choices for closing them. Some more moderate Republican legislators are trying to get conservative governors to go along with some tax increases.   read more

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled last week that the U.S. Postal Service's emergency price increase of 4.3%, in place since January 2014, cannot last forever. The increase raised the price of stamps from 46 cents to 49 cents. The increase came with a cap on how much money the USPS could recover, which is scheduled to be hit this summer. When postal officials asked to make the increase permanent, the PRC turned them down.   read more

The Massachusetts State Police won Investigative Reporters and Editors' Golden Padlock Award because they “habitually go to extraordinary lengths to thwart public records requests, protect law enforcement officers and public officials who violate the law and block efforts to scrutinize how the department performs its duties.”   read more

Nationwide, abortions are down 12% since 2010, but in Michigan and Louisiana, both states that have enacted abortion restrictions, the number of such procedures has increased significantly. The increases—up 18.5% in Michigan and 12% in Louisiana—are at least partly because those states adjoin others where abortions are even more tightly restricted.   read more

The Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) agreement being negotiated by the Obama administration with representatives from 23 other nations, mostly in Europe and South America, but also including Japan, South Korea, Australia and Israel, has provisions that could allow personal data to be stored in other countries. Unlike the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which deals mostly with goods, TiSA is intended to regulate services, such as the Internet. This concerns privacy advocates.   read more

In the past, the payments came directly to farmers in the form of subsidies. Now, they’re coming as payments for crop insurance, which can protect farmers if the price drops below a preset amount, making it very difficult to lose money by farming cotton. Although switching to wheat would use less water, government policies encourage farmers to keep growing cotton.   read more

In general, the U.S. income tax system is progressive: that is, the more you make, the greater percentage you pay. When it comes to the super-rich however, that’s not true. Those 1,360 who made more than $62 million in a year paid a smaller tax rate than those who make $13 million. The average tax rate for the richest 0.001% was 17.6%.   read more