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

Last year, the two top donors to super PACs hailed from the left: Former New York City Mayor and Republican-turned-independent Michael Bloomberg and California billionaire hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer, who’s big on the environment. Steyer gave out $11.1 million in donations, while Bloomberg contributed $8.7 million, according to the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan watchdog group. The biggest Republican sugar daddy, homebuilder Bob Perry, doled $3.1 million before he died last April.   read more

The Humane Society, which was the leading proponent of Proposition 2 in 2008, says the California demands amount to leaving the birds enough space to reduce the incidence of salmonella, and make it easier to keep the cages clean of excrement, flies, rats and disease. The lawsuit claims a dual threat to Missouri. Farmers can either “incur massive capital improvement costs to build larger habitats” or walk away from California.   read more

The manufacturer of a blood-thinning drug tried to hide results of an internal study that the manufacturer feared would hurt sales of the widely-advertised medication, according to recently-unsealed court documents. Boehringer Ingelheim, manufacturer of Pradaxa, is being sued by patients and their families, charging it failed to properly warn users about possible dangers of the drug. More than 1,000 of those using Pradaxa have died from bleeding.   read more

Three tribes, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe in Arizona, the Umatilla Tribes of Oregon and Tulalip Tribes of Washington, will be allowed to arrest and prosecute non-Indians accused of domestic violence on tribal lands starting February 20. The project is a result of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013.   read more

The gallery paid $25.5 million for George Bellows’ “Men of the Docks,” a 1912 painting that depicts workers on the Brooklyn waterfront. The painting had been owned by Randolph College in Virginia, part of the collection of the college’s Maier Museum of Art. It’s the latest in a controversial series of sales by the college. Museum leaders around the country criticized the college in 2010 when it became known that some of its works were being sold to boost the school’s finances.   read more

If there was any doubt that Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is in charge of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, take a look at the six athletes who were chosen for the honor of carrying the Olympic Flame inside the stadium during the climax of the otherwise superb Opening Ceremony. Only two of the torchbearers were winter athletes.   read more

Fewer police officers died last year in the United States than during any other time since the late 1950s, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. A total of 111 law enforcement personnel died in the line of duty in 2013, marking the lowest number of fatalities since 110 were killed in 1959. Last year’s total represented an 8% decrease from the 121 who died in 2012.   read more

With plans to make some forms of higher education tuition-free, on top of already having the fastest Internet service, Tennessee is rebranding itself as a state of innovation and forward thinking. Governor Bill Haslam wants to make all community colleges and trade schools tuition-free for students, regardless of their academic standing or income level. If the legislature supports Haslam’s proposal, Tennessee would become the only state in the country to make two-year higher-education free.   read more

Researchers say the more lead a person has in their brain, the more likely they’ll have impaired neurological functions, including those predisposing them to committing violence. Studies show the amount of lead in Americans’ bodies has declined significantly since the 1970s, when gas stations began phasing out the sale of leaded gasoline and builders ceased using lead-based paint in new homes.   read more

Many of China’s wealthy are fleeing their home country and settling in the United States, where better schools and other opportunities await. Nearly 90,000 Chinese became permanent U.S. residents in 2011. The migration includes a significant number of rich Chinese. At least 25% of those worth more than $16 million have fled the country. The single biggest motivator, by far, is their dissatisfaction with China’s education system.   read more

Members of Congress,enjoyed plenty of free trips last year, even though new rules were put into place to prevent special interests from providing this kind of perk. Lawmakers took 1,887 all-expense-paid journeys worth about $6 million, the highest recorded since Congress adopted restrictions in 2007. Lobbyists and their clients cannot finance congressional travel overseas, so those expenses are often paid for by private interests with close connections to lobbyists.   read more

Nearly a dozen shipments of oil coming out of North Dakota were mislabeled by oil producers, potentially creating hazardous risks, federal regulators have found. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which oversees the transportation of petroleum, said samples taken from 11 out of 18 truck shipments en route to rail loading stations were misclassified. The companies responsible for the errors were Hess Corp., Whiting Oil and Gas Corp., and Marathon Oil Co.   read more

Physicians for Integrity in Medical Research has sued the FDA over the heart medication roflumilast, claiming it should be pulled off the market. Intended to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the Forest Laboratories product does more harm than good, according to the plaintiff. The group says roflumilast (trade name Daliresp) “does not work as stated.” Side effects of roflumilast include an increase in suicide, cancer and acute pancreatitis, the doctors say.   read more

Police cannot punish drivers for flashing their headlights to warn others of speed traps, a federal judge has ruled in a case involving the First Amendment. The ruling arose after police in Ellisville, Missouri, ticketed Michael Elli for using his headlights to inform motorists that officers were lying in wait to ticket those exceeding the speed limit. The ACLU, which sued on behalf of Elli and other drivers, argued that the plaintiffs’ actions constituted a form of free speech.   read more

U.S. Representative Robert E. Andrews (D-New Jersey) is resigning from Congress, and who can blame him. It’s not like he was getting anything done. Literally. During the 23 years he’s served in the House, Andrews authored 646 bills, more than any other lawmaker who arrived at the same time as him. And not a single one became law. The Washington Post described Andrews as “America’s least successful lawmaker of the past two decades.”   read more

SIGAR chief John Sopko has upset the U.S. military by reporting on million-dollar programs that failed to account for missing tax dollars. When informed of the Pentagon's anti-SIGAR campaign, he said: “It’s disappointing to see that funds appropriated by Congress are being used...to misrepresent the work of an independent inspector general. American(s)...would be better served if [they] spent less time writing misleading press releases and more time fixing the problems we’ve identified.”   read more