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

Millions of Americans stand to receive overtime pay as a result of President Obama’s new labor proposal that targets workers deemed “executive or professional” by their companies. The White House decided to go this route after Republicans refused to support legislation raising the minimum wage. Administration officials argue the government needs to act to help workers whose wages have stagnated, while corporate profits have soared since the Great Recession.   read more

A special military board to review cases of Guantánamo detainees has ruled for the first time that a prisoner remain behind bars indefinitely. The board decided that Abdel Malik al-Rahabi, of Yemen, should not go free in order to “protect against a continuing significant threat to the security of the United States.” Rahabi told the board that he had no desire to harm the U.S. or Americans, and that he just wanted to return home to his family and go back to farming.   read more

Clozapine can cause serious side effects, including seizures and heart-muscle inflammation. Psychiatrist Michael Reinstein was found to have prescribed more clozapine to patients in Medicaid’s Illinois program than all of the doctors in the Medicaid programs of Texas, Florida and North Carolina combined. He also prescribed the drug to Medicare patients, despite its risks to the elderly. At least three of the doctor’s patients died of clozapine intoxication.   read more

Senator Dianne Feinstein now understands what her years of supporting the intelligence community have gotten her: being spied on and lied to. She has now gone on the offensive against the CIA. She took to the Senate floor to give a detailed account of how her committee conducted its probe of the CIA’s interrogation program, and how the CIA has broken the law by interfering with the work of the legislative branch. She also accused the CIA of intimidation.   read more

Two whistleblowers fired from their jobs at the nation’s biggest environmental cleanup project were prevented this week from testifying before a congressional committee looking into whistleblower terminations. That’s due to the objection of Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Senator Claire McCaskill wanted to hear from the whistleblowers in light of the numerous problems encountered at the Hanford nuclear cleanup operation in Washington state.   read more

A Michigan woman who starred in a conservative attack ad denouncing the Affordable Care Act has had her erroneous claims exposed and debunked by media sources. Still, she refuses to admit she was wrong. The Detroit News concluded that her change in coverage would actually save her money this year—more than $1,000. "It appears she jumped on television without trying to understand...her new coverage," wrote the Washington Post.   read more

Many cabinet-level departments have done a very poor job of facilitating or responding to Freedom of Information Act requests.. Among the 15 federal agencies reviewed using the criteria, not a single one received an A grade. The Departments of Labor, Veterans Affairs, Defense, and Homeland Security received F’s. The State Department had the distinction of earning the lowest overall score of any agency: 37%.   read more

The change in terminology was discovered in a military document, “Medical Management of Detainees With Weight Loss.” “The document tries to give the impression that it’s not about hunger strikes — that it’s about weight loss,” said Ret. Army Brigadier General Stephen Xenakis. It is clear that the military never intended for the document to be released. “They are completely sidestepping WMA’s advice,” that hunger strikers “shall not be fed artificially,” said Xenakis.   read more

A Florida state audit found the town violated 31 local, state and federal laws. The biggest unknown is the whereabouts of $600,000 in speeding ticket revenue. Town mayor Barry Moore has been sitting in jail since November on charges of illegally selling painkillers. He’s not sure, but he thinks he may still be the mayor. “It’s something out of a Southern Gothic novel,” said state Senator Rob Bradley. "The mismanagement was so deep, we have to seriously consider abolishing the government.”   read more

The massive spill in February was from one of Duke Energy’s power plants that sent at least 80,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan River, which flows between Virginia and North Carolina. North Carolina's Republican Governor Pat McCrory—who has received more than $1 million in campaign donations from Duke Energy, where he once served as an executive—has told the utility to explore ways of moving its ponds, which could cost $1 billion. Duke's response: ratepayers will have to foot the bill.   read more

An American gun manufacturer has outraged Italians over what they say is a crass manipulation of Renaissance art just to sell an assault weapon. Illinois-based ArmaLite produced an ad showing Michelangelo’s David holding an AR-50A1 bolt-action rifle. The ad was published in major Italian newspapers and websites. The condemnation from government and cultural fronts was sharp and immediate. “The image of David, armed, offends and infringes the law,” said Italy's minister of culture.   read more

One of CFPB's key duties is to ensure that banks don’t discriminate when it comes to customers’ ethnicity. But the agency appears to have its own problem with favoring white employees over non-white ones. In rating the performances of CFPB workers, management has clearly given a greater number of higher marks to whites than minorities. The percentage of whites receiving high ratings was 75%, while the rate for Asians as well as Hispanics was 65%, and for African-Americans it was 58%.   read more

The weak economic recovery has been hard on college graduates seeking employment who, in turn, have made it more difficult for young people with only a high school education looking for work. The situation is forcing people with bachelor’s degrees to accept low-wage service jobs, while those with no college are either stuck in even lower paying jobs or are dropping out of the job market altogether.   read more

The Koch brothers, who provide one of the largest sources of money for Republican politicians and conservative causes, spent $413 million in the 2013 election. That exceeded the combined spending of the top 10 unions: $153 million. Lloyd Mayer, who examined some of the Koch groups’ tax filings, said he has never seen a tax-exempt financial network like it. “It’s designed to make it opaque as to where the money is coming from and where the money is going. No layperson thought this up.”   read more

This smart gun communicates with a wristwatch that comes with it. The gun user must be wearing the watch, or else the weapon won’t fire. Gun control advocates say it's a great example of gun safety that could help end the black market for stolen firearms. But that’s not how many gun owners see it. Gun-rights organizations like the NRA have long hated smart guns. Also, Smith & Wesson was nearly boycotted out of business after agreeing to develop the technology.   read more

For three decades politicians in the U.S. thought that punishing drug offenders and violent criminals meant subjecting them to mandatory prison sentences. This policy resulted in skyrocketing prison populations throughout the nation, and more tax dollars spent. But by the turn of the new century, policymakers began to rethink their approach to crime. Liberal arguments for sentencing reform began to garner more attention, and even conservatives started to reconsider sentencing laws.   read more