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

The mistakes took place over a year and a half (February 2012 to June 2013), during which the Department of Health and Hospitals paid $1.9 million to several insurance companies participating in the state’s Medicaid programs. The agency relied on outdated information contained in the Social Security Administration database to determine if a Medicaid participant was still living.   read more

A children’s rights group located more than 1,000 pedophiles in the United States and dozens of other countries using a computer-generated girl as bait on the Internet. Sweetie, a 10-year-old Filipina girl, was created by Terre des Hommes Netherlands. The group established Sweetie’s identity in online chat rooms, saying she was available for webcam-based sex. More than 20,000 pedophiles from 71 countries responded within a 10-week period.   read more

A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal has sentenced an American citizen to death for helping lead a militia group responsible for murdering nearly 20 intellectuals during the country’s war for independence 42 years ago.   read more

Consisting of rooftop sensors mounted on buildings and light poles through the city, ShotSpotter notes every time the sound of firearms being discharged is detected. Those sounds are analyzed by a computer and tracked to within yards of their source location—a process that takes less than 40 seconds per incident. Personnel monitoring the system notify police in the field, who then speed to the location.   read more

ALEC registers itself with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization or “charity.” ALEC thus gets several valuable benefits—including tax deductibility of donations made to it and being allowed to keep its donors’ names secret—in exchange for agreeing to behave like a charity, which means refraining from engaging in political activities like campaigning for candidates or lobbying for legislation.   read more

The Justice Department is not yet done with SAC, whose deal shields certain SAC corporate entities from further prosecution for insider trading between 1999 and December 2012. But the agreement provided no immunity to firm employees who could still face charges. So far criminal charges haven’t been filed against SAC founder Steven Cohen, although he is currently fighting civil charges that he failed to supervise employees accused of insider trading.   read more

"The Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations, which binds both military and CIA interrogators, permits methods of interrogation that are recognized under international law as forms of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Such methods include sleep deprivation, isolation, and exploitation of fear.”   read more

The United States spent $7 billion to wean Afghanistan off growing poppies in order to stem the heroin trade coming out of the war-torn country. But that money has little to show for itself. U.S. drug enforcement agents have been surprised to find a high level of collaboration within Afghan drug groups, unlike the usual violent rivalries found between cartels in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.   read more

The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Trevor Timm wrote that “the bill codifies some of the NSA’s worst practices, would be a huge setback for everyone’s privacy, and it would permanently entrench the NSA’s collection of every phone record held by U.S. telecoms. We urge members of Congress to oppose it.” Critics of Feinstein’s plan prefer legislation introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), which would put a stop to the NSA’s domestic phone-records collection.   read more

• The U.S. government doesn’t exercise the kinds of cost controls that other countries do. As an example, the U.S. paid an average of $947 per person for prescription drugs in 2009, nearly double the $487 per person paid in the OECD as a whole. Yet “we don’t take twice as many pills,” said Holland. “We just let big pharma charge whatever it can get away with.”   read more

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found 8,400 individuals with security clearances between 2006 and 2012 who owed $85 million to the IRS. About half of the 8,400 had not arranged a repayment plan with the IRS). The average amount owed was $3,800. Some owed as much as $2 million. About half of them (4,700) were federal employees, while the rest were contractors.   read more

The echinacea included Parthenium hysterophorus, a plant that can cause rashes, nausea and flatulence. St. John’s Wort contained, in one instance, only rice, and in another instance Alexandrian Senna, an Egyptian shrub that acts as a powerful laxative and can cause liver damage.   read more

China subsidizes the programs, and in return, the Chinese government dictates what can—and cannot—be taught at the CIs. At the University of Chicago’s CI, school officials don’t even dare hang a photo of the Dalai Lama, whom the Chinese government considers a threat because of his Tibetan independence views. “CIs are managed by a foreign government, and accordingly are responsive to its politics,” Marshall Sahlins wrote at The Nation.   read more

Tort reform bills limit liability for negligence or personal-injury lawsuits. Tort reform, corporate front groups realized, is not a politically popular issue—not nearly as powerful as getting tough on crime. Judges who are supportive of a “tough” approach to criminal justice tend to be conservative overall, and thus more likely to support pro-business tort reform efforts. It could even be called a case of “bait and switch.”   read more

Overtime has become a form of entitlement at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with some employees padding their paychecks by 25% with extra pay for work they don’t necessarily perform. Workers refer to overtime pay as a “candy bowl,” according to seven whistleblowers who talked to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC).   read more

Back in 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) got wind of allegations that several Silicon Valley tech companies had been colluding among themselves since at least 2006 to drive down salaries by agreeing not to recruit each other’s employees. The plan was evidently hatched by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. DOJ filed a civil suit alleging violations of the federal antitrust laws.   read more