President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed outrage to aides because there have been no violent mass street demonstrations against his statements and policies. He believes he needs violent demonstrations against him in order to declare a national state of emergency that would allow him to do anything he wants.   read more

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been told by Congress to do more with less, taking on the responsibility of regulating the multi-trillion-dollar swaps market while having its funding frozen at an inadequate level, according to ...   read more

Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona considers the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) funding of political science research “meritless” and wants Congress to eliminate all funding for such work.   By a vote of 218-208, the House of Representatives ...   read more

Teenaged drivers + teenaged passengers = deadly combination.   That’s the conclusion of a new study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety after studying recent data on automobile crashes.   In cases where a teen driver was accompanied by so...   read more

In a “watershed moment” for the U.S. banking industry, the Federal Reserve has approved the first takeover of an American financial institution by the Chinese government.   Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC), which is owned by the...   read more

Fed up with the Obama administration’s interference with medical marijuana operations across the country, a bipartisan coalition of congressmen has introduced an amendment to stop the U.S. Department of Justice from conducting more raids on dispen...   read more

Although big firm “corporate lawyers” have a well-deserved reputation for sharp dealing and exploiting technicalities, attorneys working for the government are equally willing to hide behind picayune loopholes when it benefits their client. A case...   read more

In a world turned upside down, when governments forbid companies from dumping toxic waste or warn their citizens of the dangers of tobacco, large multinational corporations sue them in secret courts, where unelected judges, acting without juries, ...   read more

Candidates who go negative during a political campaign run the risk of a backlash from voters.   But if a so-called independent group can sling your mud for you, then going negative is a much more successful strategy, according to two professors...   read more

Proving once again the adage that wealth has no patriotism, billionaire Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin has renounced his U.S. citizenship to avoid a hefty tax bill when Facebook goes public on May 18.   Born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1982, S...   read more

Catch-22 is alive and well at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, with an able assist last week from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. In Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22, under Army Rule Catch-22 a crazy pilot could be grounded ...   read more

The presidential practice of handing out plum ambassador assignments to major political donors who have few or none of the qualifications to serve in such posts is alive and well in the Obama administration, just as it was in that of George W. Bus...   read more

On May 7, U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter announced to his embassy staff in Pakistan that he’d be quitting in the summer after serving less than two years on the job. Tensions have been rising between the United States and Pakistan recently, but an...   read more

 Getting a full-time job is toughest these days for those in their twenties.   According to a new Gallup poll, 32% of young workers (age 18-29) are underemployed, a category that combines the unemployed with individuals who are working part-time...   read more

Americans love their credit cards, some more than others.   Residents of Arkansas and New Jersey currently have the heaviest credit card debts, according to the Federal Reserve. Arkansans carry an average of $4,060 per person, making their state...   read more

Victims of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) drone attack in Pakistan have filed two lawsuits in a Pakistani court demanding that their government seek criminal prosecution for those responsible for killing 50 civilians.   The lawsuits (known ...   read more

Things are heating up in the United States. Over the past 12 months, the average national temperature reached the highest ever recorded since the government began keeping track in 1895.   From May 2011 to April 2012, the nationally averaged temp...   read more