In an attempt to end the war caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump has offered to return Alaska to Russia in exchange for Russia pulling its troops from Eastern Ukraine. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said he would agree to the proposal if Trump also returned Fort Ross and the Russian River in California, Russia sold Fort Ross to Mexican citizen John Sutter in 1841.   read more

Prokhorov still has political ambitions back in Russia, where it was rumored he wants to run for mayor of Moscow. But currently he can’t run for office, not since Putin pushed through a law outlawing any Russian with foreign assets from being elected. Second, the Obama administration has already imposed some sanctions against Russia’s elite, and if more are put into place, that could leave Prokhorov’s NBA franchise vulnerable.   read more

According to the report, Saudi textbooks have included the following passages: “Kill the person who changes his religion … for there is no benefit in keeping them alive.” “It is permissible to kill a sorcerer” (particularly notable given Saudi police arrested more than 200 people in 2012 alone for alleged sorcery). Pagans, Christians and Jews are “the worst creatures” who “will dwell in hellfire.” God made Jews out of “swine and apes.”   read more

One U.S. Army base sits atop miles of hidden trenches containing blister agents, choking agents, blood agents and more. It is surrounded by homes, schools, churches and shopping centers—and few residents are aware of the toxic danger lurking nearby. The quantity of weapons at this site: 388,000. Up to 25,000 of these are intact and, once disturbed, may be volatile. “This stuff is very dangerous to dig up," said James Watson. "If you get that nerve agent on you, it will kill you.”   read more

Even as President Barack Obama has railed against leaks, the number of security clearances granted to government workers, contractors and others has steadily gone up during his time in office. That number has now exceeded 5 million. “[The] growth in the number of clearance-holders... exposes classified national security information... to an increasingly large population,” an OMB review states.This "has created a culture in which...clearances are now too often granted by default."   read more

Not a single banking leader has been indicted, Justice officials say, because it has been too difficult to prove executives intended to harm clients. Law professor Peter Henning has proposed a solution: Adopt a new legal standard for corporate recklessness. “If a primary reason for the lack of prosecutions...is the high threshold for proving intent, then one response," he said, "can be to reduce the element needed to establish a violation so that it is easier to pursue a case."   read more

The Yakama Nation in Washington state is demanding that marijuana growers stay off its lands. “We have had a long and unpleasant history with marijuana, just as we have had with alcohol,” said Yakama Chairman Harry Smiskin. “Marijuana is the biggest problem for our people up to age 40,” the tribe’s attorney, George Colby, told Reuters. “It’s a bigger problem than alcohol.” The state has received 1,300 marijuana business applications alone in 10 of its counties.   read more

Military veterans are making good use of the GI Bill and its support for those seeking college education. More than half of vets on the bill have completed their two-year or four-year postsecondary education programs, according to a Student Veterans of America study. Many veterans don’t stop at achieving just one degree. More than 30% who earned vocational certificates, nearly 36% who received an associate’s degree, and 21% of bachelor’s degree grads went on for more schooling.   read more

The recipient of this promotional money is the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), which buys ads to encourage Americans to eat more beef and pays lobbyists to fight off efforts by animal rights groups and others advocating policies the NCBA opposes. Four large corporations—Cargill, Tyson Foods, JBS, and National Beef Packing—now control 85% of the meat-packing business.   read more

An investigative report by USA Today found nearly 187,000 criminal cases not being pursued by police due to lack of time or money to have fugitives extradited. This total includes tens of thousands of wanted felons, with more than 3,300 accused of murder, sexual assault and robbery. The decisions to not pursue extradition are “almost always made in secret, permit fugitives to go free in communities across the country.”   read more

It’s questionable whether spending to shield terminals and other airport facilities from attack, as opposed to the mission of keeping terrorists off airplanes, makes sense from a cost-benefit perspective, the study shows. There were 20 attacks on airports in the U.S. and Europe between 1998 and 2011, killing 64 people. During this same time period, 31 attacks were recorded on aircraft, including the 9/11 attacks.   read more

One study of inmates serving time in the New York City jail system found that only 7.3% of jail admissions involved solitary confinement. However, 53% of inmates who tried to hurt themselves and 45% of cases where self-harm was potentially fatal happened to those whose admission included solitary.   read more

Female judges on average sentenced people to 1.7 fewer months than male judges. Judges appointed by a Democratic president were 2.2% more likely to exercise leniency, Yang found.   read more

Between 2009 and 2011, states spent $20.4 billion each year to expand their roads. The 8,822 lane-miles added is less than 1% of the U.S. road network. To maintain the other 99% of America’s highways, states spent only $16.5 billion annually during the same period. In 2011, only 37% of roads were deemed to be in “good” repair.   read more

Of all crude oil imported to the U.S. in 2006, 22% came from Africa; nearly a third of China’s oil imports currently come from that continent. It has been projected that those percentages will increase for both countries. African oil is particularly desirable to refiners because it tends to be high-quality with a low amount of sulfur.   read more

A U.S. appeals court gave banks a victory on Friday when it overturned a decision that would have limited what financial institutions can charge businesses to handle debit card transactions. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), who sponsored the amendment that set a cap on swipe fees, called the ruling by the appeals court “a giveaway to the nation’s most powerful banks and a blow to consumers and small businesses across America.”   read more

Data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Education shows that nearly 5,000 preschoolers were suspended from school during the 2011-2012 academic year. Black children comprised 48% of those suspended more than once despite being only 18% of the student body.   read more