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

Tennessee, the state that produced the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925, is coming close to adopting a new law that allows teachers to question the “scientific strengths” of evolution.   The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson), says that t...   read more

On an afternoon in May 1925, two entrepreneurs sat scheming in a drugstore in Dayton, Tennessee. George Rappelyea and F. E. Robinson pored over a notice in the Chattanooga Times, placed by a little-known New York organization called the American C...   read more

As more and more states legalize medical marijuana, law enforcement needs a new DUI standard, not to mention a Breathalyzer for pot.   Currently, there is no legally established limit for how high a driver can be before they’re a danger on the r...   read more

Having helped cripple the housing market, Wall Street firms are now seeking to profit from the millions of foreclosed homes by buying up properties and renting them out.   Fannie Mae is helping arrange the deal, by packaging large numbers of ban...   read more

If one Washington lobby has its way, sewage sludge will be rebranded as compost, making it easier for crops to be exposed to toxic materials.   Pushing the rebranding effort is the U.S. Composting Council, an organization founded by the makers o...   read more

Advocates of community radio won an important victory this week when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it would dismiss a backlog of more than 6,000 pending applications for what are known as translators and open the applicatio...   read more

With its ice sheet slowly receding because of global warming, Greenland has become popular with mining companies seeking new stores of valuable minerals.   Beneath the thinning glaciers are lodes of uranium, zinc, iron ore, copper and gold, as w...   read more

Following the time-honored tradition of lawmakers (“do unto others as you would not do unto yourself”), the Florida legislature adopted the first-in-the-nation law that allows state workers to be tested for drug use.   Legislators are exempt.  ...   read more

Rather than focus on helping smaller businesses, Republicans and Democrats in Washington have come together on legislation that would assist large corporations and allow them to skirt financial disclosure rules.   The Jump-Start Our Business Sta...   read more

The U.S. Supreme Court this week heard two cases that will decide whether juveniles as young as 14 years of age should be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. They are among about 2,200 Americans serving life sentences wi...   read more

It might seem like the title of biggest employer in the world would go to the ubiquitous Walmart or McDonald’s. But, in fact, the honor belongs not with a company but a government agency: the U.S. Department of Defense.   With 3.2 million on its...   read more

It’s safe to say the one word not to say around Disney executives right now is “Mars.”   For the second year in a row, the biggest film flop could be about the “red planet.” Disney has a candidate for 2012’s largest financial mistake in John Car...   read more

In the first State Integrity Investigation conducted by multiple watchdog groups, the state of Georgia came in dead last, although it was not the only government to receive a failing grade.   After assessing transparency, accountability and anti...   read more

Chevron and another American company are under attack from the government of Brazil after allowing an oil leak from an offshore well.   Seventeen executives from Chevron and oil platform operator Transocean face criminal charges for an oil disch...   read more

Congressional Democrats, the media and civil libertarians are continuing their fight with President Barack Obama over his administration’s secret interpretations of the Patriot Act.   Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, who ...   read more

Support from a leading scientific publishing company for a controversial piece of legislation produced a backlash from more than 8,000 academic researchers.   Four years ago, as part of the 2008 Appropriations Act, Congress approved guidelines e...   read more