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

“The Arctic is all about operating forward and being ready. We don’t think we’re going to have to do war-fighting up there, but we have to be ready,” said Rear Admiral Jonathan White, director of the Navy’s climate change task force. Naval readiness means doing more research on climate change impacts in the Arctic, and figuring out how and where to base and operate ships and planes for missions in this region. The Navy is also planning submarine exercises for the Arctic   read more

A secret court in Delaware that settles disputes between companies wants the U.S. Supreme Court to validate its work so it can continue to offer dispute resolution outside the view of the media and the public. Businesses at odds with one another could rent judges and courtrooms for $6,000 a day (plus a filing fee of $12,000) to arbitrate settlements and judgments The courtroom itself was closed off to the public, and the outcome of proceedings was disclosed to no one.   read more

The United States has no peer when it comes to producing the means of warfare, according to a new worldwide ranking of corporate arms merchants. Of the top half dozen weapons makers on earth, five of them are American, says the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. They are Lockheed Martin (ranked No. 1), Boeing (No. 2), Raytheon (No. 4), General Dynamics (No. 5) and Northrop Grumman (No. 6).   read more

The controversy over legalized discrimination against homosexuals is over in Arizona, but the debate is still alive in Washington D.C., where the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear a similar case. The court will decide whether the owner of a photography business in New Mexico was within her constitutional right to refuse to take photos of a lesbian couple’s commitment ceremony.   read more

General Motors has recalled more than 1.6 million Chevy Cobalts due to faulty ignition switches, prompting the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration to launch an investigation. But this is not the first time that federal regulators learned about problems with the Cobalt, raising the question of why it took the NHTSA so long to act. Last decade, GM conducted another recall involving the Cobalt, which in total has caused 31 accidents and 13 deaths from the same problem.   read more

A total of 1,558 soldiers endured major limb amputations as a result of battlefield injuries. Major limb amputations include the loss of one or more limbs, the loss of one or more partial limbs, or the loss of one or more full or partial hand or foot, according to the CRS. Considerably more military personnel suffered “severe or penetrating brain injuries”— 7,224. Another 23,319 men and women were diagnosed with “moderate” brain injuries.   read more

President Obama has nominated a higher percentage of campaign bundlers to ambassadorships than any recent president. Since January 2013, 48 of his 85 ambassadorial nominees have been political appointments rather than career Foreign Service employees. Twenty-four of those nominees have been prominent fundraisers for Obama’s presidential campaigns, according to the Center for Public Integrity.   read more

ERM, it turned out, utilized some staff members on the review who had previously worked for TransCanada, the Calgary-based builder of the pipeline, raising a possible conflict of interest. “ERM only disclosed its relationship with TransCanada after they were awarded the contract; even though conflicts of interest were supposed to be one of the criteria. This is not reassuring,” Friends of the Earth president Erich Pica said in a press release.   read more

The technology was used in China’s “Golden Shield” program, which censored and tracked Internet use. The system was used to find the named plaintiff in the suit, Du Daobin, who was prosecuted for writing articles critical of the Chinese Communist Party and urging fair treatment for farmers. The Cisco ruling could signal a tightening of the use of the Alien Tort Statute. Similar suits against foreign companies have been dismissed in recent months.   read more

After his arrest, Lee’s phone was confiscated and detectives read his messages without his permission. Among the messages were two from Shawn Hinton and Jonathan Roden. Detectives returned the messages, posing as Lee, and set up meetings to sell them drugs. Hinton and Roden were subsequently arrested and charged with attempted possession of heroin. Both were convicted.   read more

Fresh, frozen and canned vegetables, yogurt, whole grains and even tofu have been added to the list of foods allowed to be purchased under the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), according to a Reuters report. WIC serves 53% of infants born in the United States. Some of the changes had been made on an interim basis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2007.   read more

The report questioned the Border Patrol policy of allowing the use of deadly force against individuals who throw rocks or other objects at agents. Border Patrol officials sat on the report, which was completed in February 2013. When members of Congress requested copies of the investigation last fall, the CBP turned over a censored summary that left out discussion of vehicle-related and rock-throwing shootings.   read more

Garcia’s legal case, though, wasn’t about the video’s backlash. Instead, she argued that the overdubbing of her part represented a violation of her artistic copyright, even though she had no creative role in developing or editing the video. The first judge to hear her case rejected Garcia’s arguments. But after she petitioned the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to review the decision, a panel of judges voted 2-1 to overrule the lower court.   read more

SawStop’s technology sends a weak electric current through a saw blade. When the blade touches skin, a sensor detects the change in current and jams an aluminum wedge into the blade, stopping it in about three milliseconds, much quicker than a user can react. SawStops’ action contends industry companies conspired to boycott the technology and force Underwriters’ Laboratories to change its saw safety guard standards to the detriment of SawStop.   read more

Steven Spriggs had appealed his conviction for using the map function on his phone while stuck in traffic on a Fresno highway. In hearings in traffic court and Superior Court, Spriggs claimed the law prohibits only talking and listening on a phone. The appeals court pointed out that when the law under which Spriggs was charged was written in 2006, smartphones with map functions weren’t common.   read more

Many of the images contained nudity (somewhere between 3% and 11%), which not only proved irrelevant to GCHQ’s mission, but also distracting as far as keeping employees focused on more serious work. “Unfortunately…it would appear that a surprising number of people use webcam conversations to show intimate parts of their body to the other person,” one document states.   read more