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

If President Barack Obama declares the Egyptian military did indeed seize power, his administration would be forced under federal law to suspend all assistance to the Middle Eastern country. That aid totals about $1.5 billion, nearly all of which ($1.3 billion) is military support.   read more

Tony Capaccio at Bloomberg wrote: “The skimpy 14-page final report recited DoD regulations governing media dealings and largely summarized e-mails, most released in May 2012 by Judicial Watch, a Washington-based legal organization that chronicled cooperation between the CIA, Pentagon and filmmakers.”   read more

The citizens will first sit down with Smithfield lawyers and a mediator to try to resolve the complaints. If that fails to produce a resolution, the complainants will file lawsuits against the billion-dollar corporation. Such litigation could become hampered if the North Carolina General Assembly approves hog-farming-friendly legislation that would require any plaintiff who loses a case against Smithfield and others like it to pay for their legal fees.   read more

Today’s FISC has Roberts’ imprint all over it—he’s appointed all of its members since becoming chief justice. Ten of the eleven FISC judges are Republicans and they are not subject to confirmation. When hearing cases, they only hear the government’s point of view. Opposing arguments are not presented.   read more

It is still not known how many people were killed, how many buildings were destroyed and whether the town’s water supply has been contaminated by the more than 26,000 gallons of light crude oil that spilled into the Claudiere River, which feeds into the St. Lawrence River.   read more

The National Security Agency (NSA) controversy as revealed by Edward Snowden has raised the question of whether the nation’s top intelligence official should face felony charges for lying before Congress. Senator Ron Wyden (R-Oregon) asked Clapper: “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Clapper’s response: “No, sir.”   read more

Following the deadliest accident in the history of the global garment industry, more than 70 retailers and clothing brands have pledged to improve safety conditions in Bangladesh’s textile factories. But two leading U.S. companies—Walmart and Gap—have refused to sign the agreement that was prompted by the April 24 tragedy that killed 1,127 garment workers inside Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza, which collapsed.   read more

The president’s nomination of James “Wally” Brewster to be the next ambassador to the Dominican Republic, however, has been greeted with an ugly example of homophobic hostility—with the nation’s highest ranking Catholic official as the ringleader. During a press conference last week, Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, who is currently archbishop of Santo Domingo, referred to Brewster as a “maricón”—a derogatory terms that is usually translated in the U.S. as “faggot.”   read more

Although national leaders of the GOP have been attempting to “rebrand” their party by emphasizing economic opportunity and downplaying social issues like marriage equality and abortion, Republican state legislators must have missed the memo. Since the beginning of the year, Republicans have spearheaded the passage of at least 40 new state laws intended to restrict access to abortion, including mandatory ultrasounds for pregnant women and expensive new regulations for clinics.   read more

In order to reach his ruling, Bates had to ignore the actual legislative history of the provision, including Congressional hearings and pro-disclosure statements on the floor of Congress by its sponsors. The oil companies were represented by Eugene Scalia, son of Justice Antonin Scalia.   read more

“Defendant Officer David Cawthorn outlined the defendants’ plan in his official report: ‘It was determined to…attempt to contact Mitchell. If Mitchell answered the door he would be asked to leave. If he refused to leave he would be arrested for Obstructing a Police Officer. If Mitchell refused to answer the door, force entry would be made and Mitchell would be arrested.’”   read more

The complaint charges that, as part of the force-feeding procedure, the government is forcibly dosing detainees with a drug that can cause serious neurological disorders, including tardive dyskinesia, which are involuntary movements similar to those in Parkinson’s disease. The drug, metoclopramide, popularly known as Reglan, is supposed to speed up digestion and reduce nausea caused by force-feeding. According to the FDA, Reglan can also cause depression, suicidal thoughts and suicide.   read more

The three-year pilot program is believed to be the first in the nation to put full-time yoga instructors in each of a district’s schools and has an opt-out option for parents who don’t want their children to participate in the 30-minute, twice-weekly classes.   read more

The Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program was implemented following the 2001 Anthrax attacks that killed five people, including two postal workers. It involves computers used by the USPS that photograph the exterior of all paper mail processed in the U.S. Last year, the Postal Service handled about 160 billion pieces of mail.   read more

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) obtained a report produced by CPB in 2010 that shows the agency has considered equipping its Predators with “non-lethal weapons designed to immobilize” targets of interest. Given the date of the report, it is possible that the weaponization has already taken place. It is unclear at this time what kind of weaponization CPB has in mind for the drones.   read more

Although the intended course of the ballistic missile was known, the interceptor missile missed its target and both had to be destroyed by remote control. The military has conducted sixteen tests of this ground-based midcourse defense system, which has passed only eight times and suffered three straight failures since its last success in December 2008.   read more